Optikpark Rathenow - Optik auf der Spur
Giant telescope, color pyramids, garden rays: Physics and garden art result in an iridescent mixture in Rathenow.
This invention was intended to change the world: the multi-spindle grinding machine, invented by Johann Heinrich August Duncker, patented in 1801. The complicated apparatus made it possible for the first time to produce optical lenses inexpensively. It was the key invention for the optical industry. Now eyeglasses could be produced cheaply for everyone. At first, however, the patent changed his native town itself: Rathenov became the city of optics. And this circumstance inspired a unique garden art project in Germany.
In spring and summer, Optikpark Rathenow offers a very special picture: tens of thousands of tulips, horn violets and pansies glow in the sun in all the colours of the rainbow at the start of the season. A few weeks later they are replaced by zinnias, petunias, bellflowers, sunflowers, student flowers, geraniums, begonias, magic bells and many other species - these are also sorted according to the spectrum of light. "Garden blasting" is the central attraction of the Optikpark: 37 beds, each four metres wide and 20 metres long. Due to the alternating planting they are in full bloom throughout the season.
The Optikpark was created on the occasion of the State Garden Show Rathenow 2006. It was also one of the venues for the Federal Horticultural Show 2015. Visitors to the park encounter the theme of optics in various forms: as the world's largest and most functional brachymedial telescope, as a lighthouse or optical sculpture, as a colour source, colour pyramid or optical playground. And if you want to treat your eyes and legs to a break after strolling through the colour spectrum, you can stop off at the Blaue Café or the bistro "Der Speicher" in an old mill building directly on the Havel.
Tips:
This invention was intended to change the world: the multi-spindle grinding machine, invented by Johann Heinrich August Duncker, patented in 1801. The complicated apparatus made it possible for the first time to produce optical lenses inexpensively. It was the key invention for the optical industry. Now eyeglasses could be produced cheaply for everyone. At first, however, the patent changed his native town itself: Rathenov became the city of optics. And this circumstance inspired a unique garden art project in Germany.
In spring and summer, Optikpark Rathenow offers a very special picture: tens of thousands of tulips, horn violets and pansies glow in the sun in all the colours of the rainbow at the start of the season. A few weeks later they are replaced by zinnias, petunias, bellflowers, sunflowers, student flowers, geraniums, begonias, magic bells and many other species - these are also sorted according to the spectrum of light. "Garden blasting" is the central attraction of the Optikpark: 37 beds, each four metres wide and 20 metres long. Due to the alternating planting they are in full bloom throughout the season.
The Optikpark was created on the occasion of the State Garden Show Rathenow 2006. It was also one of the venues for the Federal Horticultural Show 2015. Visitors to the park encounter the theme of optics in various forms: as the world's largest and most functional brachymedial telescope, as a lighthouse or optical sculpture, as a colour source, colour pyramid or optical playground. And if you want to treat your eyes and legs to a break after strolling through the colour spectrum, you can stop off at the Blaue Café or the bistro "Der Speicher" in an old mill building directly on the Havel.
Tips:
- Optics playground with giant bouncy cushion
- Rafting on the idyllic Havel Altarm
- Water hiking base at the historic granary
- Electricity filling station at the rear part of the Mühlenhof, entrance main entrance