Südpark, Public park in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Südpark is a large public green space in Düsseldorf divided into three distinct sections offering lakes, paths, and gardens. The space is carefully laid out with multiple water features and planted areas distributed throughout.
The Volksgarten, the oldest section, was planned in 1893 and construction began in 1895 on land bought from an aristocratic family, including the Stoffeler cemetery and a groundwater lake. In the 1960s the area south of it was wasteland with a former gravel pit and scrapyards. After Düsseldorf won the bid for the 1987 Bundesgartenschau, the whole park was redeveloped to plans by the Planungsgruppe Südpark.
The garden axis In den Gärten lines up a scent garden, a rock garden and small pond landscapes as ideas for visitors' own plots, plus a VHS-Biogarten worked without chemical aids. At the western edge stands the Höfchen, a restored former farmstead that draws children. Sculptures range from the Feuerbach-Denkmal of the late 19th century to Klaus Rinke's Zeitfeld of 1986.
The park is split into three sections: Volksgarten in the northwest, In den Gärten in the southeast and Vor dem Deich at the southern end. The main water play area near Emmastraße reopened in summer 2019 after renovation. The A46 motorway borders the south and the railway to Cologne the north, so entrances are best reached from Oberbilk or Wersten.
The area called Vor dem Deich takes its name from a dike, but the dike is not a 1573 structure: this southern section of 23 hectares was laid out on former gravel pits and rubbish tips for the 1987 Federal Horticultural Show. Its former quarry lake was joined by three artificial lakes, and parts of the water are now a bird sanctuary where muskrats and nutrias have settled.
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