Crowned with golden cupola and towers, Schwerin Castle towers above its setting on a small island in a lake. It is reached by a bridge and connected to an expansive park by another bridge. This summer 1.8 million visitors are expected to tread where the dukes of Mecklenburg once took leisurely walks as the Germany’s Federal Horticulture Exhibition, affectionately known as the BUGA, comes to the recently restored castle gardens and environs.

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(© picture-alliance/ ZB)

This year’s national garden festival marks the first time that the BUGA has been conceived around a historic parkland venue. Owing to the long history of Schwerin Castle and the island as a seat of power, a walk around the exhibition will enable visitors to observe the transformation of landscape gardening design down the centuries. The festival takes place from April 23 to October 11.

From the Castle Garden on the island with its elements of the Renaissance period a bridge leads to the Baroque section of the park where the Kreuzkanal (small channel) is harmoniously incorporated into the formal layout of floral beds and bosquets. From here visitors arrive in the Greenhouse Garden which was designed by gardener Peter Joseph Lenné (1789-1866) in the style of an English landscape park.

Alongside this area and separated only by a water channel is the 21st Century Garden which was constructed on an artificial platform last year. This rectangular area of meadow seems to float above the small lake. This section of the lake between the castle and the old city has been dredged and returned to its former state. During the GDR-era it had been used an in-fill site for the rubble of a demolished historical part of the city.

Historic gardens restored

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(© picture-alliance/ ZB)

The BUGA 2009 has been a blessing to ducal grounds in Schwerin, which have been compared by building conservationists to the royal Prussian landscape gardens in Potsdam. Without the event, which is expected to attract some 1.8 million visitors over five-plus months, it is unlikely that the northeast state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern  would have been able to complete the 8.5-million-euro restoration project in its capital in such a short period.

A total of 730 new trees have been planted in the 24-hectare park and many waterways, paths and weirs have been renovated. The grounds have even grown in size as a result. The neglected six-hectare southern section of the historic garden area had reverted to mixed woodland in recent decades. It has now been opened-up again as a part of the park and visitors can “experience” its historic Hippodrome riding area along with a maze.

Seven gardens  

Next to the Castle Gardens the other BUGA gardens, seven in all, are laid out like pearls on a necklace.

Take the Grand Duke’s Kitchen Garden: neglected for years, this area has been recreated for the BUGA with all manner of herbs and aromatic plants. This is also the site of the collection of glass halls with their temporary indoor floral displays   

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(© picture alliance /ZB)

The waterside and natural gardens lie directly on the banks of one of Germany’s largest lakes while a pontoon bridge links them with the ducal stables or where the ministerial buildings of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern  are currently located. These have been freshly renovated and a rose garden has been laid out here.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern  enjoyed a record year for tourism in 2008 - notching up 27.5 million overnight stays - and officials hope the BUGA will provide publicity for the gardens of castles, mansions and monasteries throughout the state.

A total of 32 special floral events to mark the BUGA are taking place across the state, from Bothmer Castle in northwest Mecklenburg to the Baltic island of Rügen.