The Kromlau Azalea and Rhododendron Park (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Azaleen- und Rhododendronpark Kromlau'';

Upper Sorbian Upper Sorbian (), occasionally referred to as Wendish (), is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, today part of Saxony, Germany. It is a West Slavic language, along with Lower Sorbian, Czech, Poli ...

: ''Acalejowy a Rododendronowy Park Kromola'') is an landscaped park in the village of

Kromlau Kromlau () is a community of the Saxon municipality of Gablenz, Saxony, Gablenz in the district of Görlitz (district), Görlitz, located in the westernmost part of Lower Silesia, Germany. The village is in the Sorbian settlement area of Upper Lu ...

(Upper Sorbian: Kromola), in the municipality of Gablenz (Jabłońc) in the region of

Lusatia Lusatia (; ; ; ; ; ), otherwise known as Sorbia, is a region in Central Europe, formerly entirely in Germany and today territorially split between Germany and modern-day Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the eas ...

(

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (, ; , ; ; or ''Milsko''; ) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region of Lusatia, named after the Polabian Slavs, Slavic ''Lusici'' tribe. Both parts of Lusatia a ...

), in the very east of the German state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, close to the border with Poland. It was created in the nineteenth century, reportedly on the grounds of a former feudal estate, by Friedrich Herrmann Rötschke. Following World War II, the park was nationalized by the government, and has no admission fee (though there is a nominal parking fee). The park is an example of an

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal ...

, and it contains many small ponds and lakes. Its most well-known element is the Rakotz Bridge, a bridge especially built to create a circle when it is reflected in the water beneath it.

Rakotz Bridge

The Rakotz Bridge (German: ''Rakotzbrücke''; Upper Sorbian: ''Rakocec Móst''), also known as Devil's Bridge (German: ''Teufelsbrücke''; Upper Sorbian: ''Djabołski Móst''), spanning Rakotz Lake, is long and wide. The name of both the bridge and the lake derive from the Upper Sorbian expression for

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

(''rak''). The radius of the inner arch is 2.2 metres, and the outer radius is 3.4 metres long. The

abutments An abutment is the Bridge#Structure types, substructure at the ends of a bridge Span (architecture), span or dam supporting its Bridge#Structure types, superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end that provide vertical and l ...

measure , and the side weights measure . The bridge features artificially-formed

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

columns selected and shipped from distant quarries. It was commissioned in 1860 "by the knight of the local town", Friedrich Herrmann Rötschke (1805–1893). Although the bridge was renovated in 2018 and 2019, it has remained forbidden to cross the bridge, for the safety of both the public and the bridge itself.

Gallery

File:Park - panoramio (96).jpg File:Park - panoramio (97).jpg File:Park - panoramio (99).jpg File:20050521075DR Kromlau (Gablenz-K) Park Kavalierhaus.jpg File:2022-05-22 Azaleen- und Rhododendronpark Kromlau 01.jpg File:Kromlau Asiatische-Brücke Inselteich 20240520 122032.jpg File:2023-08 Kromlau (38).jpg File:Kromlau Asiatische-Brücke Inselteich 20240520 123012.jpg File:2023-08 Kromlau (12).jpg Kromlau-Rhododendronpark-Herkules 20240520 095208.jpg File:20050521080DR Kromlau (Gablenz-K) Park Kavalierhaus.jpg File:Rakotzbrücke 2021 06.jpg File:DEU Gablenz (Oberlausitz) COA.svg, The Rakotz Bridge and

apples An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

(Upper Sorbian: ''jabłučina'' or ''jabłoń'') in the coat of arms of Gablenz. File:Locator map GR in Germany.svg, District of Görlitz within Germany File:Saxony GR.svg, District of Görlitz within

File:Municipalities in GR.svg, Municipalities of the district of Görlitz File:Gablenz in GR.svg, Gablenz within the district of Görlitz.

References

External links

Protected areas of Saxony Parks in Germany Görlitz (district) {{Görlitz-geo-stub