Schlossgarten Stuttgart, Park in Stuttgart, Germany

The Schlossgarten is a large park that stretches from Stuttgart's center toward the Neckar River, connecting different sections through walking paths, water features, and planted areas. The space is divided by roads that are crossed by pedestrian bridges, creating a continuous green zone across the city.

A "count's garden" beside the Old Castle was first mentioned in 1350; Duke Christoph laid out a Renaissance pleasure garden in the mid-16th century, but it was built over from 1746 when work on the Neues Schloss began. From around 1800 the "Royal Grounds" were open to the public, with Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret designing the Upper grounds in 1807 and the Lower ones between 1813 and 1817. The 1961 and 1977 Bundesgartenschauen largely destroyed the older structures in the Upper and Middle garden and gently renovated the Lower garden.

The park's name comes from the royal castle gardens; from around 1800 the "Königliche Anlagen" were opened to the population from the start, turning the Schlossgarten into a Volksgarten. In the Upper Schlossgarten stand the opera house and playhouse of the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Kunsthalle, the Eberhardsgruppe and the Landtag, while the Middle section holds the ruin of the Neues Lusthaus and the Carl-Zeiss-Planetarium.

The park is split into three sections by roads crossed on footbridges: the Ferdinand-Leitner-Steg over Schillerstraße and the Grüne Brücke over Cannstatter Straße. The Untere Schlossgarten runs to the Mineralbäder in Berg near the Bad Cannstatt Neckar bank. Stuttgart 21 construction affects parts of the Mittlerer Schlossgarten.

The straight Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Allee runs through the Lower Schlossgarten, accompanied by an artificial stream modelled on the covered Nesenbach that feeds the Nymphensee, Eissee and Inselsee in sequence. The avenue and these lakes trace the classicist layout Nikolaus Friedrich Thouret designed; since 1987 there have been efforts to restore his garden architecture with the Ovalsee and park avenue.