Pergola's in a landscape garden - Kleve, Germany - Pergolas on Waymarking.com

The natural landscape situation with the Springenberg and the Tiergartenwald inspired the Cleves stadtholder Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679) to create a garden of the arts, with the so-called amphitheater as the center.
Only the dome now stands on the site of the Amphitheater. Both sides of the building are now still represented by two pergolas
The semicircular gallery, the exedra, was built in 1660 and after undergoing several changes over time, it was restored in 1997 as a beech hedge pergola.

Historic Gardens in Kleve
After the end of the Eighty Years' War with the Peace of Münster 1648, much work had to be done in the area of ??the former Duchy of Cleves, then in the hands of the Elector of Brandenburg. The stadholder in his services, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, conceived the plan to recreate his residence city of Cleves and its surroundings in an unparalleled park landscape. This resulted in a historically trendsetting whole, which has served as inspiration many times over from Berlin to Versailles.

In his design for the "Neue Tierpark", Jacob van Campen had the Sterreberg constructed as the central point. From here, 12 avenues led to special viewpoints in the area. Even today, however, the amphitheater on Springenberg is the most eye-catching. Like in an ancient theater, terraces form a hemisphere in the slope, framed on both sides by dense forest. At different heights, the heavenly blue is reflected by ponds.

In the middle of it is a statue of Pallas Athene, made about 1660 by the sculptor Arthus Quellinus. The original, now in the Museum Kurhaus, was a gift from the city of Amsterdam to Johan Maurits. Behind the statue of the goddess is a small round temple and above it an obelisk, added in the 19th century. The semicircular gallery, the exedra, was built in 1660 and after undergoing several changes over time, it was restored in 1997 as a beech hedge pergola. In 2004, to celebrate the 400th birthday of Johan Maurits, the Iron Man, founded by him in 1653, which was destroyed in 1794, was restored on the historic site with a sculpture by Stephan Balkenhol.

The canal ends just before the amphitheater, which, according to Johan Maurits's will, should have connected Kleve with the Rhine. The 600-metre-long water basin was built in 1660 and also forms a visual axis. The view over the Rhine plain extends to the Eltenberg with the Romanesque abbey church of Hoog-Elten as "point-de-vue". There are two islands in the canal basin, which are nowadays embellished with the initials I M and with the cross of the Johanniterorder, to which Johan Maurits belonged as grand master.

In 1782, Julius Ernst von Buggenhagen, the then President of the Cleves Court, built the Forstgarten next to the canal and planted 150 different exotic trees and shrubs here, some of which are still preserved today.

In the middle of the 18th century, the park was turned into a spa park with the discovery of a health source. In the heyday of "Bad Cleve" the Kurhaus with corridors and Kurhotel was built in 1872, the current Museum Kurhaus Kleve.

During the French period, parts of the landscaping were destroyed, which had to be reconstructed from 1821 under Prussian rule. The highly regarded Düsseldorfer Hofgarten direktor Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe made the plans for the redevelopment and gave the parks, characterized by Baroque symmetry, the character of an English landscape garden. Since 1975, the historic Weyhe Park has been completely restored to designs by the garden architects Gustav and Rose Wörner. In 1993 the park was declared a European Garden Monument and in 2007 the Kleve Gardens took second place in the competition for the most beautiful park in Germany.

Today, the parks provide a perfect backdrop for special events. Under the name "Kleefse Pianozomer" every August a number of concerts with internationally renowned pianists attract numerous visitors; the Festival of Lights with fireworks in baroque style is a regular highlight in September and in winter the Forstgarten shimmers in the glitter of the Christmas market.

Is the pergola freestanding or attached to a structure?: Freestanding Free to visit?: Free to the public Web address or URL: Not listed Secondary web address or URL: Not listed

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