The Hermit's Garden

The geometrically created French garden on artificially levelled soil presented a contrast to the natural style of an English landscape garden in order to clearly separate it from its surroundings.

Originally the four flower beds were planted in rectangular formations. The waterfall with the fountain, made of a hollowed tree trunk, connects on one end the Gessner Grotto with Hermit's Garden. The hermitage at the top of the garden completes the idyllic scene. The carefully maintained flower beds are part of the notion of a living hermit, who tends to his garden. Opposite the waterfall at the other end of the garden is a bench made of tufa, an additional connection between the hermitage and the hermit's garden, which invites you to pause and linger and prepare yourself for the visit to the hermitage. Both benches, like the rounded form of the flower beds, were created during the reconstruction of the Ermitage.