Schönbusch Park (Schlosspark Schönbusch) lies across the River Main from the city centre, reached by a short walk over the bridge. It is one of the earliest and best-preserved English landscape gardens in Germany, laid out at the end of the 18th century for the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz. The design is naturalistic: winding paths through woodland, a lake with a small island, meadows that open suddenly onto water, and a scattering of follies — a classical temple, a mock ruined bridge, a hermitage.
At the centre of the park stands the small neoclassical Schönbusch Palace, used as a summer residence. The palace is open for tours in season. The park is lovely for a morning walk regardless of whether you visit the palace — the combination of mature trees, still water, and 18th-century picturesque planning produces exactly the kind of calm, slightly melancholy beauty the English landscape style aimed at. In May and June, the flowering is particularly good.