The garden is adjacent to a former Benedictine abbey founded in 828. In the course of secularization, the abbey and gardens became the property of the Landgraves of Hessen-Darmstadt and are now owned by the state. Buildings and garden have been carefully reconstructed over the past two decades. The former convent garden is laid out with a geometrical parterre, its eight compartments planted according to the historical lay-out with vegetables, fruit and herbs. The garden also has a physic garden, the ‘Engelsgaertchen’ and the ‘Thiergarten’, all clustered around the abbey buildings and close to the river Main. The orangery, built in 1757, is a rare survivor of from this period. Together with reconstructed domestic facilities of monastic life, the gardens offer great insights into more than thousand years of the abbey’s history.
Ehemalige Benediktinerabtei, 63500 Seligenstadt, Centre and North West, Germany
All year. Daily. Open dawn to dusk (or 8pm in the summer).
Garden Free (charge applies for monastery buildings)