What began more than 370 years ago as a small summer retreat is today an impressive and harmonious ensemble of palace and park in the heart of Munich. This paradise on earth was created by famous landscape gardener Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell. He is regarded as the initiator of the classical phase of English landscaped gardens in Germany and is also famous as a city architect for Munich.

The Bavarian elector Ferdinand was so delighted at the birth of a much longed-for heir to his throne that he gave his wife a piece of land. That was in 1663, and the Wittelsbach Electress Henriette Adelaide von Savoyen built herself a “borgo de la ninfe”, a small summer villa with a garden. This was the predecessor of Nymphenburg Palace. At the start of the 18th century the building was extended on both sides, with residential pavilions connected by galleries being added. The exterior was remodelled in the French style and the modest palace transformed into a large, elegant summer residence. Nymphenburg is regarded as a European masterpiece, combining architecture and landscape design in seldom-seen harmony. At the beginning of the 19th century the leading landscape gardener Friedrich Ludwig Sckell transformed the margins of the park into an English landscaped garden with meandering paths and picturesque effects.
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Schönbusch Park in Aschaffenburg, Lower Franconia, is one of Germany's oldest classical landscaped gardens. Starting in 1775, under Friedrich Carl von Erthal, Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell transformed what was then a hunting ground into an English landscaped garden. The park boasts an abundance of plants, a temple to friendship, a philosopher's house, an orangery, the Nilkheim chapel, Nilkheim model farm, shepherds' houses and a little village. The neo-classical Schönbusch garden palace gives visitors an insight into 18th century royal living in ten rooms furnished in Louis XVI style.
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In 1789 Elector Carl Theodor von der Pfalz instructed the American Count Rumford to create a park. The acclaimed royal gardener Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell designed and built it, modelling it on English landscape gardens. Covering an area of 373 hectares in total, the English Garden is one of the most sizeable urban parks in the world, larger than New York's Central Park. The city's “green lungs” stretch from the centre of Munich to its northern edge. The Isarring, a major road, divides the garden into a longer northern part, the “Hirschau”, and a southern part. The English Garden is without doubt an amazing oasis of tranquillity.
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