Hercules statue at the Herkulesteich, Gottorf Castle

Hercules statue at the Herkulesteich, Gottorf Castle

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Hercules statue at the Herkulesteich, Gottorf Castle

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Location: Schleswig, Schleswig-Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

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September 5, 2025

Hiking

On the lowest terrace of the Baroque garden is the beautiful Hercules Pond... from it rises the beautifully designed sculpture of Hercules, who swings a club

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JR56

February 8, 2023

Hiking

The Hercules Pond is the lowest terrace of the Baroque garden of Gottorf Castle, which Duke Friedrich III had built as the "New Work." The Hercules Pond was named after a giant statue depicting the hero (actually Heracles) fighting the Hydra.

In 1994, work began on recovering the more than 300 fragments of this statue and creating a replica, which was then inaugurated in 1997 along with the re-excavated pond.

galerie-av.de/herkules/index.php

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JR56

February 8, 2023

Hiking

In the center of the Hercules Pond, below the Gottorf Baroque Garden, stands a nearly six-meter-high water-spouting sculpture group depicting Hercules, wearing a lion's cape and carrying a jagged club on his shoulder, fighting the Lernaean Hydra, a multi-headed dragon. Hercules thus allegorically represents the strong and courageous ruler fighting evil.

The sculpture, created around 1640, is reminiscent in its theme and execution of a work by the Dutch sculptor Adriaen de Vries (1556–1616), created in Augsburg in 1602. However, the Gottorf Hercules is attributed to the Dutch sculptor Cornelis van Mander, who worked as a court sculptor in Gottorf.

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