Würzburg Residence

The Residence was built when Würzburg was still a fortified town. Therefore, the garden too had to be planned within the fortifications. The solution included two bastions of the fortified town wall, using its differences in height to create a very special landscape. From west to east there is a rise in ground, until the level of the wall is reached. Near the residence itself, the Hofgarten (or Court Gardens) is designed in a very formal, Baroque style. Farther away, the style changes to an English garden with small forests and meadows. Designs for the former part were made by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, Neumann and François de Cuvilliés. It was mainly created in 1759-70. Johann Peter Alexander Wagner added putti, vases, urns and two monumental sculpture groups, the Rape of Europa and the abduction of Proserpina, sited in the central axis between the Orangery and the southern pavilion of the Residence. The figures were added to the park under Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim, who had the park at Veitshöchheim similarly decorated. Three monumental gates lead to the Court Gardens, commissioned by Friedrich Karl von Schönborn from Joh. Georg Oegg.^[1]:52

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Würzburg Residence