The centrepiece of the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, Wörlitzer Park was laid out from the 1760s onward for Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, who had toured England and come back inspired by the English landscape garden. The result is one of the finest examples in continental Europe: serpentine paths wind through meadows and woodland, over bridges and past neoclassical pavilions, around a system of artificial lakes and channels that can be explored by flat-bottomed gondola.
The scale is generous — the park is several kilometres across — and the mood shifts as you walk: a Gothic house here, a reproduction of the Pantheon there, a working vineyard on an artificial island. In spring the meadows fill with wild flowers; in summer the lakeside willows trail into the water. It is designed to be aimlessly wandered, and rewards exactly that.
Boat rides on the Wörlitzer See are one of the pleasures of the place. Gondoliers in period costume punt visitors around the lake, past the Stein island with its artificial volcano (which actually erupts during summer evening events). The village of Wörlitz itself, just outside the park gates, has a cluster of small restaurants and cafes.