Park at the Ilm River in Weimar

On the way to Goethe's garden house

The 48-hectare landscape park on the edge of Weimar's Old Town is part of a kilometer-long green belt along the Ilm River.
It was created between 1778 and 1828 and displays both sensitive as well as classical and post-classical-romantic features. The establishment of the park at the Ilm River is closely connected with Goethe's life and work in Weimar.

In 1776, Duke Carl August gave the poet a cottage with a garden, known today as Goethe's Garden House. The first buildings and squares were built in 1778 on the western rocky slope. Over time, paths and small seating areas were designed, and monuments were erected, as well as other park architecture and bridges. In addition, numerous trees and shrubs were planted. The old castle gardens such as the "Stern" (Star) and the "Welsche Garten" (French Garden) were redesigned and integrated into the park, as were the eastern valley slope and the river floodplain up to Oberweimar.

Between 1791 and 1797, the duke had the Roman House built in the classicist style. It represents the design highlight in the southern part of the park.

An important feature of the grounds are the numerous visual axes that link prominent points such as Goethe's Garden House, the Roman House, and the Borkenhäuschen (Bark House) within the park but also establish relationships with the surrounding area.

With the death of Carl August, who had decisively advanced the development of the park design, the work essentially came to an end in 1828.
In the following decades, the park was maintained but lost part of its direct connections to the surrounding landscape due to developments in its vicinity, for example on the street "Am Horn" (At the Horn). In addition, inadequate interventions in the tree population endangered its original appearance. It was not until the National Research and Memorial Sites of Classical German Literature (Nationale Forschungs- und Gedenkstätten der klassischen deutschen Literatur, NFG) took over the park in 1970 that extensive restoration, preservation and maintenance work was carried out on the copses, paths and architectures. Since 1998, the park at the Ilm River has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.