The historic irrigation system in the court garden still feeds the water features in the Great Lake today and appears in a variety of forms: as a reflective lake surface, a rippling cascade staircase and fine spring jets.
As early as 1764, Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim wrote about Veitshöchheim: "I have water everywhere in great quantities," in other words more than enough. On the slope side of the garden, where the cascade was later built, large quantities of water emerged from the ground. In order to prevent the garden from becoming swampy, this spring was captured before 1720 and a well house was built over it. An underground canal led the water directly into the Great Lake.
Due to the abundant flow of the springs, the Small Lake, the Hechtsee, the Karpfensee and the Küchensee could also be supplied with fresh water all year round. This enabled extensive fish farming to supply the prince-bishop's court kitchen.
The majority of the water is still fed into the Great Lake today. The underground canals built for this purpose have different cross-sections depending on the amount of water drained. In the last section of the canal, the spring water is channeled from the water tower into the Main.
A 300-year-old brick canal, which is part of the gigantic, historic irrigation system in the Hofgarten, caused the community of Veitshöchheim trouble on Tiergartenstrasse until 2015. Since the summer of 2014, it has only been possible to enter this street via Würzburger Strasse and exit via Mainlände. This traffic regulation was necessary because the old canal was in danger of collapsing. [29] In 2015/2016, the street and the historic canal were extensively renovated.