The One with Hermitage and Court Garden

It's General Conference this weekend, but seeing as how we're 8 hours ahead of schedule, we took advantage of our churchless morning and made our way to the city of Bayreuth to visit the Hermitage and Court Garden. Hermitage in this instance means: A place where one can live in seclusion; a retreat. What I wouldn't give to have this be my place of retreat! You'll see, keep reading.

Doesn't get more Germany-countryside than this!

We passed through about half a dozen little towns, each with their own signature church and Bavarian style homes. Chris and I always wonder, what do these people do for a living??

The grounds were HUGE! So much to see and explore!

A bit about Hermitage and Court Garden: The Hermitage has its origins in 1616 when the margrave purchased a tract of forest not far from Bayreuth. Half a century later, Margrave Christian Ernst turned part of it into a deer park and shortly afterwards added a grotto and fountain house. Margrave Georg Wilhelm (reigned 1712-1726) built a palace in this remote forest, which was surrounded on three sides by the Roter Main river. It is more than likely that, as the patron, the margrave had a say in the planning of this striking, coherently designed complex, conceived as the "court hermitage". The subsequent development of the Hermitage was largely the work of Margravine Wilhelmine, who received the Hermitage as a present from her husband Margrave Friedrich in 1735. The Old Palace was enlarged and a number of new garden areas were created with water and architectural features, such as the Lower Grotto and the Orangery (today the New Palace) with the Large Pond. 

This place isn't in any Rick Steves book so we were on our own to figure out where to go. Through the beautiful trees we go!

Statue | Japanese-inspired grotto.

I keep telling the trees to hang on to their leaves for just a couple more weeks when we head down to Garmisch and see THE Neuschwanstein Castle!

It was raining a bit but we didn't notice because the canopy of trees overhead caught the bulk of the falling drops.

Yeah. I'd live here. 

The focal point of the New Palace is the so-called Temple of the Sun, with two arcades curving out from it on either side. They were used to house exotic plants in the winter, and on the end of each arcade was a large aviary. The northern half of the oval consisted of pergolas, some of which have been reconstructed, with niches containing sandstone vases. 

 

The ENTIRE structure is covered in these rocks - oh how much time that must have taken!

Simply stunning and amazing.

On the hour the fountains go off - we arrived at 10am, right in time for the show!

Then we walked and walked and walked around, enjoying the many structures and fountains and grottos and gardens.

Such pretty leaves, even if I do want them to hang on for a bit longer.

This is a hotel/restaurant. I wonder how much it costs to stay a night here?

Lovely ivy.

An old theater.

Little church that looks like it's straight out of the Blair Witch Project!

This is the Old Palace.

A peek inside:

Colorful flowers. I wish my backyard was filled with such beauty!

We ran down this massive hill - it was fun.

This is what people did "back in the day." Took turns around the garden! No TV, no internet, no computers. Just nature. Good thing nature is beautiful!

Not sure what this house is, but it's oh so cute'n'quaint.

After an hour or so we'd quickly circled the entire park and made our way back to the car to eat lunch and drive home.

The Hermitage and Court Garden is only one of FIVE palaces/gardens/places of interest in Bayreuth! Good thing it's only 30 minutes away!