Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
It is one of the places tourists at Kassel, Germany normally don’t get to see because of its location: the Park Schönfeld is a public park in the south of the city and part of a green connection between the Karlsaue and the Habichtswald. It is named after Nikolaus Heinrich von Schönfeld (born 1733) who also built a beautiful house – the Schlösschen Schönfeld – here.
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At the southern end of the Staatspark Karlsaue of Kassel, Germany you can find the Blumeninsel Siebenbergen – an artificial island within the Küchengraben created in 1710 and designed in the year 1820. It is an island on which between April and October a vast number of flowers can be admired. It is a mix between local and exotic plants.
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When you’re walking along the Fulda close to the Orangerie at Kassel, Germany you might be a bit surprised to see a giant pickaxe close to the river. Or you might be not surprised as you can see many artworks throughout this city regularly hosting the art exhibition documenta. Why would you enlarge a pickaxe massively and put it at this specific place?
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If the inhabitants of Kassel, Germany talk about the ‘Buga‘ than they mean something different than the rest of the country. ‘Buga‘ here refers to the Fuldaaue, an area that was redesigned by the Bundesgartenschau 1981 (federal horticultural show, abbreviated as ‘Buga‘). Kassel has seen two Bundesgartenschauen: in 1955 when the Karlsaue was restored after the war and in 1981 when within the Fuldaaue the ‘BUGA-See‘ as a swimming lake with different small beaches was created.
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The Fridericianum is a museum building at the Friedrichsplatz of Kassel, Germany and one of the most important buildings of the city. It is the central building of every documenta art exhibition and in between also used for changing exhibitions. It is named after Frederick II, landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and was finished in 1179. By that time it was already used as a museum for the collection of the landgrave and his library.
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Within the Staatspark Karlsaue at Kassel, Germany you can find a big lake – the Aueteich (wetland pond). Within there is an island called Schwaneninsel (swan island) you can’t reach unless you swim over or wait until the water is frozen in winter times. On the island you can see a neoclassical temple with a golden sphere on top: it symbolizes the planet jupiter and is part of the ‘Planetenweg‘ showing the distances of the planets in scale 1:495 millions.
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The Staatspark Karlsaue is public garden in baroque style at Kassel, Germany that has been created from the year 1568 on. It is part of the city but feels a bit separated as it is below the city level. At the northern end you will find the Orangerie with a museum, the Marmorbad, a restaurant and a giant bowling green in front. There you can find different statues and three main axes: in the east the Hirschgraben, in the west the Küchengraben and in the middle an alley leading to the Aueteich with the Schwaneninsel with a neoclassical temple.
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The orangery of Kassel, Germany was formerly only 400 meters away from the city palace. But this palace burned down in 1811 and only one tower remained that now hosts a popular beer garden in summer – the Rondell. Therefore the Orangerie is now the northern end of the Karlsaue garden. It was built from the year 1703 on in baroque style and was damaged massively by a British air raid in 1943.
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Maybe the Rondell is today the best beergarden at Kassel, Germany. You can sit on an ancient turret with thick stone walls and sip your drink while having good views on river Fulda. The former tower dates back to the year 1523 and is a rest of a castle standing at this place from 1466 on.
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The Ottoneum at Kassel, Germany was the first modern theatre building in Germany and houses today a natural history museum. It was built by the order of Moritz von Hessen-Kassel who named it after his favorite son Otto. It was erected between 1603 and 1606 following plans of architect Wilhelm Vernukken. From 1690 on the building was used for storing art collections and natural elements.
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