Many visit Bavaria for the alps, Oktoberfest and its biggest cities. But one particularly charming nature and castle getaway you should definitely put on your travel wishlist is the Sanspareil garden in Bavaria. It’s the perfect day trip from Bayreuth, offers theatrical entertainment in the summer, and unique vistas year-round. Here’s what’s so lovely about it and what tips I’d give you on the way.
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Where is Sanspareil?
In Upper Franconia and, you can find the market town Wonsees. It belongs to the administrative district of Kulmbach (which is also worth a visit!).
Geographically, it is part of the Franconian Switzerland Nature Park (in German: Fränkische Schweiz), which is part of the Franconian Jura mountains (Fränkische Alb), which belong to the German Middle Uplands (Mittelgebirge).
- Address: Sanspareil 29l, 96197 Wonsees, Germany
How to get to Sanspareil
Driving
The best way is by car.
Wonsees isn’t attached directly to the autobahn, so be prepared to drive meandering (no just winding) country roads for a bit.
At the castle and rock garden in Sanspareil, there’s a public parking lot where you can park your car for free. If you come on the weekends, especially during local holiday times, it might be crowded.
But I’ve visited twice so far around Friday noon and afternoon and it was mostly empty.
Coming from Wonsees, you drive to the central market square (street Marktplatz) and then up the country road Thurnauer Straße into a northeastern direction. There are street signs pointing you in the right direction too and you cannot miss it.
The last time I visited (in August 2023), there was construction being done on the street, so drive carefully and slowly and take not of the preliminary traffic lights.
Driving times to nearest towns:
- From Bamberg: 35 min (43,8 km) via autobahn A70
- From Kulmbach: 25 min (20,4 km) via street Am Goldenen Feld
- From Bayreuth: 31 min (29,7 km) via country road B85 and autobahn A70
- Coburg: 52 min (56,8 km) via B4
- Nuremberg: 1 h 5 min (98,7 km) über A73
- Jena: 1 h 33 min (155,2 km) via A9
Public Transport
Wonsees does not have a railway station.
This means if you rely on public transport, you’d have to take a train to the town of Kulmbach. There, head to the central bus station, called ZOB Kulmbach.
Here, you need to get on the local bus 399 in the direction of “Spitalplatz, Hollfeld”. After 14 stops and 41 minutes, you get off at stop “Sanspareil Busparkplatz, Wonsees”.
Note that the bus might not actually stop at every single stop if there’s no one awaiting at the curb. So do check the times or ask the bus driver to drop you off at Sanspareil. The driver might not speak much English either.
But you can show them this sentence in your phone or on a note: “Können Sie mich bitte bei Sanspareil absetzen? Oder mir sagen, wann ich raus muss? Danke.”
Travel tip: I always recommend downloading the free app maps.me and downloading the regional maps, so your GPS can track exactly where you are and you know how far to go you still have. That’s what I do.
What to do in Wonsees
Wonsees itself is worth a stop only if you enjoy checking out local churches or need a food stop.
The St Laurentius Church is small but very pretty inside. There’s a free parking lot opposite the church if you do want to stop.
And the church also has an archway through parish houses leading down to the towns square, which is kinda cool.
And you can also get fresh local bread at the bakery.
If you’re an ice cream fan, check out the local ice cream place and hotel Gasthof zur Krone.
In case you want to stay and explore the region (and the Franconian Switzerland definitely deserves extended visits and hikes!), you can stay at a holiday rental in Wonsees. Booking currently lists only one, namely the Ferienwohnung Sonnenhaus (book it here*).
Why visit Sanspareil in Wonsees?
Let me start by saying it’s widely wheelchair accessible!
And also Sansapareil is really unique and pretty. And definitely off the beaten path for most tourists to Bavaria. Which means: no tourist crowds!
Sanspareil is a rock garden adjacent to the Castle Zwernitz (more like a fortress) and is free to visit and open year-round.
The castle and the Oriental Building (Morgenländischer Bau) can be visited together for a small entry fee.
Between April and mid-October, there are guided tours (in German) every fourth Sunday of the month alternating between the castle and gardens.
Indivual tours can only be booked if there’s at least 15 people in the group. (Contact)
Also, there’s a castle café (Schlosscafé Sanspareil) in the former castle kitchen building. Now it sits right in the neat gardens opposite of the drip-style building Morgenländischer Bau. The building can only be visited as part of a castle visit (but is currently closed in 2023).
The Felsengarten Sanspareil, as it is called in German, spans about 13 hectares of forest land that is sprinkled with utterly unique rock formations, archways as well as a historical, open air theatre space created from and among the rocks.
- Sanspareil, Haus Nr. 34, 6197 Wonsees
- Phone: +49 9274 80890911
History of Sanspareil
The rock formations are much older than the man-made structures, of course. They are dated back to Jurassic times
The Zwernitz castle was built in the Middle Ages and mentioned in 1156 for the very first time. It used to the main seat of the Walpotes, the burgraves of Nuremberg, and the burgraves Kulmbach/Bayreuth.
The area used to be famous for hunts. But between 1744 and 1748, the park landscape around Castle Zwernitz was resculpted into a landscape garden. The order came from margravine Wilhelmine von Brandenburg-Bayreuth to celebrate her daughter’s upcoming nuptials.
To the natural woodland and rocks, paths for idle sauntering were created and buildings placed on stone pillars. As was the height of fashion at that time, much was inspired by the “orient”, one of the most significant being the “Chinese pavilion”.
(I am using air quotes because there were definitely some artistic liberties taken and no actual Chinese architects were involved.)
I personally find it utterly fascinating (and precarious viewing it through a lens of today’s building regulations), that such a delicate tower as depicted in illustrations actually sat on these dolomite rocks. No wonder the rocks broke off and the building crumbled along with them.
These buildings didn’t last the 19th century, only the ruin theatre remains intact. And is used today for shows in the summertime.
Today, the overall area is a nature reserve and protected.
Legend says that in 1746 a visiting court lady proclaimed “Ah, c’est sans pareil” upon seeing the parklands, which lead the margrave to renaming it Sanspareil. This is French and translates to “unmatched”.
Sights of Sanspareil
Castle Zwernitz
The castle itself isn’t very big but still made up of three parts: upper, lower and antecedent castle, molding itself onto the limestone rock it sits on.
If you want to visit the castle, it is open from April to mid-October. Updated prices and opening times can be viewed here.
- April-September 2023: 9am-6pm, 1-15 October: 10am-4pm
- closed Mondays (except: Easter Monday, 1 May, Whit Monday, 3 October)
- closed 16 October 2023-March 2024
Fun fact: The castle tower sits on 50m/54,68 yards above sea level and has a height of 34,5m/73,73 yards. It is entirely round with a diameter of 7.5m/24.6 ft and a wall width of 2.5m/82 ft.
Morgenländischer Bau
The Oriental Building, known as Morgenländischer Bau, definitely stands out when you stand at the entrance of the park.
I’m not entirely sure why it was deemed Oriental, to be honest. That’s some broad interpretation right there mixed with fairy tale vibes. Probably the overall layout with the round dome in the middle and symmetrical layout.
Anyway, it used to be a rural Hermitage for margravine Wilhelmine.
The outside, to me, looks a little like a drip castle (you know, the one you build on the beach). Uneven rocks are stocked atop one another out of tuff and glass flow.
The inside, however, looks rather simple by contrast with a few rococo elements. But it’s dreamy overall with different rooms facing the middle that centres an old oak tree growing on the inside.
You can see a 360° image here.
Rock garden
Like I mentioned before, the rock garden encompasses roughly 13 hectares and is beech woodland with 39 limestone rock formations. Beautiful old trees provide perfect shading, which is great in summer. In winter, you might catch a light dusting of snow on the rocks, which is gorgeous!
If you use maps.me, you can see the main rocks and caves marked, so you can easily find them. However, there are clear information boards on site as well, so you won’t overlook them. They are in German but depict the images of the original copper engravings of how they used to look like.
What’s cool is that the different rocks and caves were interpreted as the stations and tribulations of Telemach, son of Odysseus. Margravine Wilhelmine had read the French novel “Adventures of Telemach” and decided to apply the idea to her garden as if it was the setting.
You can see a map here.
- Ice Cellar and Chicken Cave
- Parterre
- Speakers’ house
- Log cabin
- Umbrella and straw house
- Green Table and Mentor’s Grotto
- Diana’s Grotto
- Vulcan’s Cave and Bear Hole
- Belvedere
- Calypso’s Grotto
- Sibyl’s and Aeolus’ Grotto
- Zschokke and Goller Rocks
Absolutely put Diana’s Grotto (Dianengrotte), Calypso’s Grotto (Kalypsogrotte) and Mentor’s Grotto (Mentorsgrotte) on your list. Wikipedia has some more information and pictures of the different stations and formations (see here).
One of my personal favourites was Diana’s grotto, which is a tall but narrow gap between two giant rocks you can walk through. The hanging plants and the drip of water create an almost ethereal scene, as if stepping through a portal.
The other one I like is the umbrella (Regenschirm) at the very start of the park. It’s funny to me because you can sit on a little stone slab and seek shelter from rain. Hence the name umbrella. It’s just too cute!
More facts: The park is 1330 metres long and 200 metres wide. The foot paths stretch for 17.5 km in total but are inter connected.
Theatre
The only original building from the glory days of the Sanspareil rock garden is the ruin theatre. It is an open-air theatre with tuff stone arches built onto a stage, which both offer the frame as well as a way for the actors to hide behind.
It’s a sort of mixture between a ruin and grotto. The arch, also known as Calypso’s grotto, where the audience can sit or find shelter from rain, is natural. The stage arches, orchestra moat and back wall were artificially constructed.
The walk to the theatre from the parking lot takes about 15 minutes.
Performances are held in Juli/August. See more info (in German) here. It is advisable to have a rain poncho and torch light on you. Bringing your own seat cushion is also a good idea.
Contact:
- Studiobühne Bayreuth e. V., Röntgenstraße 2, 95447 Bayreuth
- E-Mail: theater[at]studiobuehne-bayreuth.de
Extra: Hiking
Since you’re here already and donned your walking shoes, you could consider hiking the 8.3km/5.2mi long trail “Hül- und Lindenrunde Wonsees”. It starts at the edge of the park and takes you around the villages Kleinhül and Großenhül.
You’ll be walking on the Jurassic plateau and get to enjoy great views of the castle as well as other random stone structures here and there.
If you only want a short snippet, you can drive over to Großenhül. There are picnic benches at the orchard and a smaller 300m-long trail past historic linden trees next to a path through the meadows and fields to the pond Bodhül.
There are information boards in German to give more insights about the local habitats.
Conclusion
I’d totally recommend visiting the Sanspareil garden. It is such a dreamy setting. I visited in summer and winter and liked it both times. Wearing normal walking or hiking shoes is advisable. (No flip flops or heels because it’s still forest paths and those come with roots, stones and mud.)
If you come during official castle opening times, you also get to visit the buildings. I didn’t, so I can’t tell you much about it. But the Oriental Building for sure looks extraordinary and I’m a bit peeved I didn’t get to go in (it was closed).
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