Georgium, Dessau

A remnant of a the Gartenreich (Garden Realm) which once occupied 13.5 sq. km. It lies on a wooded meadow beside the River Elbe. It has designed ruins and a classical temple. The estate is near the Bauhaus and is so close to the dwellings in which the pioneers of the modern movement lived that one wonders whether they were influenced by the close relationship between pure white geometry and the wild green of nature. The park was made (c1780) by Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz (1740-1817) design following a visit to England in 1775. The design is attributed to Johann Friedrich Eyserbeck, who designed the Luisium for Prince Franz' wife. Prince Franz, with a passion for humanism and the Enlightenment was influenced by the agricultural and industrial revolutions in England.