Rastede Castle Park
Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig acquired the former monastery property in 1777, had the castle built as a country house in the classicist style and in 1784 commissioned the garden architect C.F. Bosse, son of the court gardener in Wolfenbüttel, with the creation of an English garden.
Peter Friedrich Ludwig, born in Eutin in 1755, after an 8-year educational trip during which he studied art and philosophy of antiquity, set out on a European trip with 91 stops, including to Wörlitz and England, where he explored the first landscape gardens. As early as 1778, he made his own designs for the 10-hectare park and the park equipment, including the Temple of Venus, built as a tea house in 1783. The castle served as the summer residence of the Dukes and Grand Dukes of Oldenburg. Successor Grand Duke Paul Friedrich August expanded the park to include Ellernteich and Hirschpark around 1843. Today the castle garden is 330 hectares in size.