Discover Kassel: Parks, water features and culture

Discover Kassel among baroque gardens, water features and art. Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe and Karlsaue invite you to explore the outdoors, while museums and documenta connections offer their own cultural highlights. Thinking about which experiences you want to shape your stay can also be a helpful starting point when looking for accommodation.

Water features and views at Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe

The water features at Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe operate seasonally from 1 May to 3 October, on Wednesdays, Sundays and public holidays. Visitors can follow the course of the water on foot. As the dates are tied to the season and specific days of the week, it is advisable to check them before your trip.

Bergpark is also home to the Hercules Monument. Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; from the monument, you can look out over Kassel and the surrounding low mountain landscape. You can reach the park from either of two sides: the lower area, with Wilhelmshöhe Palace, or the upper area, with the Hercules Monument and the starting point of the water features. Check current transport details before planning your journey.

A special garden feature is the rose garden, with 1,000 different shrub, wild and climbing roses. It received the European “Award of Garden Excellence.” Together with the water features and the view from the Hercules Monument, it makes the park appealing to visitors who want to combine nature with designed landscapes.

Karlsaue: garden art, walks and planets

The Karlsaue State Park is a 150-hectare urban recreation area just a few steps from the centre of Kassel. Around 1700, the grounds were first laid out as a symmetrical Baroque garden with water basins and fan-shaped canals. At the end of the 18th century, they were redesigned as an English-style landscape garden. Its Baroque sightlines and symbolic axes can still be experienced by visitors today.

As you walk along the Planet Trail in Karlsaue, it illustrates the distances and sizes of the planets in the solar system at a reduced scale. If you would like to explore the grounds by bike, be sure to follow the applicable rules: cycling is permitted only on the designated Herkules-Wartburg long-distance cycle route and on An der Karlsaue street. Check the regulations before setting out by bike.

The Orangerie Palace stands at the northern end of the Baroque gardens and is also their centrepiece. It houses Hesse’s largest planetarium. With modern projection technology, it invites visitors on virtual flights through the galaxy. A star projector and a video projection system operate simultaneously: the ZKP-4 projector displays stars visible to the naked eye on a ten-metre dome. The Orangerie thus offers a different perspective on the sky from the Planet Trail’s illustration of the scale of the solar system.

Art and museums from different perspectives

GRIMMWELT Kassel explores the lives, work and legacy of the Brothers Grimm through artistic, multimedia and interactive means. The Neue Galerie’s permanent exhibition “about: documenta” displays original works from past documenta exhibitions. Another documenta connection in the cityscape is “Man Walking to the Sky” by Jonathan Borofsky: the artwork stands on the forecourt of the Kulturbahnhof and was created for documenta 9 in 1992. The “Man Walking to the Sky” initially became a crowd favourite for documenta 9 and soon afterwards a Kassel favourite and landmark.

The Museum for Sepulchral Culture focuses its exhibitions, events, research and educational programmes on farewell, remembrance and how we deal with the end of life. The permanent exhibition traces the development of burial and mourning rites, notable customs, and artistic perspectives on life and death. Its collection includes shrouds, coffins, hearses and traditional costumes; changing special exhibitions on specific themes complement the programme.

The Marble Bath in Karlsaue also offers a distinctive historical highlight: it is Germany’s last significant and surviving representative bathing complex from the late Baroque period. Those who prefer to encounter art and history outdoors can visit the Artists’ Necropolis on the outskirts of Kassel, in Habichtswald around the Blue Lake, a disused quarry. It is open all year round.

Shape your stay around your interests

This selection gives your trip planning a sense of direction without requiring every experience to be of the same kind. If you would like to combine several interests, the parks, museums and art venues offer different ways to spend your time in Kassel.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Bettenhausen, Bad Wilhelmshöhe, Vellmar, Söhrewald, Bad Emstal, Wolfhagen, Niestetal, Nieste.

Back to the main travel overview: Kassel.