Eine der ganz großen Attraktionen in Kassel ist der Wilhelmshöhe Mountain Park. Seit 2013 gehört er zum Welterbe der UNESCO, was er, neben Schloss Wilhelmshöhe mit seinen Kunstsammlungen und der künstlichen Ruine Löwenburg, vor allem den gigantischen Wasserspielen verdankt, die seit nunmehr 300 Jahren die Urgewalt der Natur auf unnachahmliche Weise demonstrieren. Ab 1689 gestaltete der von der dramatischen Topographie des Standorts inspirierte Landgraf Karl von Hessen-Kassel den barocken Bergpark. Später baute sein Enkel Wilhelm I. weiter. Alles zusammen ist bis heute ein einzigartiges Zeugnis für die einstige Gestaltungskraft des Europäischen Absolutismus. In den Sommermonaten stürzen hier immer Mittwoch- und Sonntagnachmittag (sowie an Feiertagen) bei jeder Wasserspiele-Vorführung über 750.000 Liter den Berg hinab. Das Wasser legt auf seinem Weg durch den Park etwa 2,3 Kilometer zurück. Jedes Wasserbild wird für ungefähr 10 Minuten inszeniert. Danach bleibt genug Zeit, um zur nächsten Station zu spazieren. Wir stellen euch die wichtigsten Stationen vor.
Start of the big show is at 2:30 p.m. high above Kassel at the statue of Hercules. The Greek demigod stands on top of a pyramid, which in turn is enthroned on an octagon, the so-called giant castle. At the foot of the octagonal structure is the Vexier water grotto with the artichoke basin. Here the water arts begin with fountains in the artichoke basin and the crooked cascades. In the niches of the grotto there are statues of mythical figures that signal the beginning with their horns. Like the bubbling of the fountains, the sound of the horns is produced by natural water pressure. One level below, the giant head pool awaits you, from which the stone head of the giant Encelados spews a twelve-meter-high fountain.
Over a 210 meter long and twelve-meter-wide cascade system, the water then flows from the giant head pool through three oval pools down to the Neptune Basin. If you manage to arrive at the Neptune Basin before the water, you can still make out the statue of the Roman god of the sea, otherwise it will be obscured by the falling floods. The section that the water takes from Hercules over the Cascades to the Neptune Basin is also called the "Baroque Water Games".
Named after the "architect of the water arts, Karl Steinhöfer, the waterfall is part of the system supplying the romantic water arts, which include the Devil's Bridge, the Aqueduct and the Great Fountain. During the staging, the rocks that are gradually washed over are reminiscent of a former quarry that is now being reclaimed by nature.
Next stop is the 1792/93 Devil's Bridge built by Heinrich Christoph Jussow. Originally built of wood, the metal construction spans the Hell Pond at a height of ten meters since 1826. The names Devil's Bridge and Hell Pond recall Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld, and the nearby grotto named after him.
As a ruin of a former Roman Water conduit built, the aqueduct breaks abruptly after the fourteenth of its high arches, dropping the incoming water here 30 meters. This makes it the highest artificial waterfall in an artistically designed garden to this day. Debris placed at the foot of the aqueduct gives the impression of a once intact structure and reminds us of the constant conflict between nature and technology. The water then flows over the Peneus Cascades past the Jussow Temple into the fountain pond.
Here find the water games its brilliant conclusion. For ten minutes, a 52-meter-high column of water shoots up into the sky in the natural-appearing pond. The water for this unique spectacle comes from the fountain reservoir 80 meters higher up. It then flows over man-made but natural-looking waterfalls to the castle pond, the so-called "Lac," and from there through underground pipes into the Fulda.
By train comfortably and without traffic jams to Wilhelmshöhe: Plan arrival.
Cover photo: Not to be missed - the water games in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe © Stefan Kaulbarsch - stock.adobe.com
Hiking through quiet low mountain ranges, old beech forests or orchards, paddling on the Lahn, looking at the most beautiful medieval half-timbered houses and soaking up the atmosphere of historic spas - Hessen makes romantic souls happy all around. But gourmets also get their money's worth on wine hikes, in Hessian butcher shops and with "Handkäs mit Musik", a pickled cheese. Reasons for a Vacation in Hesse there are enough!
