Hofgarten Schleißheim (Oberschleißheim)

Start beside the New Palace on its garden side. Follow the public paths along the flower parterre to the cascade, looking back at the building as you go. Retrace the parterre paths to the same starting point. This shorter plan avoids committing to the full canal walk.

Use the open public paths and ask for the most suitable entrance and ramp approach if you need step-free access. The garden path description does not remove the steps into Lustheim or its pavilions.

From the garden side of the New Palace, walk beside the parterre to the cascade, then follow the public paths along the central canal through the bosquet section to the outside of Schloss Lustheim. Pause by the ring canal before returning along your outward paths to the New Palace. Palace interiors and pavilion visits are optional extras.

Use the open public paths and ask for the most suitable entrance and ramp approach if you need step-free access. The garden path description does not remove the steps into Lustheim or its pavilions.

Choose one flower ornament visible from the path and sketch its outline. Then find its partner elsewhere in the parterre. Compare the whole pattern with a close photograph of one flower; both pictures tell a different part of the garden’s story.

Even when the fountains are off, try finding a clear reflection and a place where the water is moving. Ask which canal leads towards Lustheim. Keep children beside you and use only the public paths and bridges; do not climb onto the cascade.

The New Palace offers grand rooms, galleries and a QR-code audio tour about Aeneas in its ceiling paintings. At Lustheim, look for modelled animals and painted flowers in the Meissen porcelain collection. Check museum opening and admission first. Large bags and child-carrier backpacks cannot be taken into the palaces; the New Palace has a limited number of loan buggies.

Look for the cultivated apple trees during an open Obstmuttergarten visit. Blossom, developing fruit and autumn apples offer different subjects. Use any readable label to identify a variety; colour alone is not enough. Leave fruit on the trees and ground, and stay within the open visitor area.

The orchard’s Zwetschgen are cultivated European plums. A labelled tree or clearly visible fruit can help distinguish them from apples. Their presence in the collection does not mean every tree is within public reach; look only from the open paths and never enter a closed fruit-tree quarter.

The Wilhelmshof avenue was restored with sycamore and Norway maples in alternating positions. Compare leaves on neighbouring trees from the public approach. The planting account dates to 2015, so do not treat the original sequence as a guarantee for every tree today.

Look for pointed, lobed maple leaves in the Wilhelmshof avenue, and compare them with the neighbouring sycamores. Photograph the leaf while it is still attached if you can. This planted avenue is an extra stop near the Old Palace, outside the two New Palace return-walk estimates.

Carp are recorded in the Lustheimer Weiher and associated park waters. If one comes into view, watch from an existing public path or bridge. These waters are managed for fishing; the record does not tell you whether an individual was stocked or born here.

European perch are among the fish recorded here. Pause where the water is easy to see from a public path, without leaning over the edge. Reflections and water clarity can make identification difficult; an uncertain fish can simply remain unidentified.

The ring-canal fish community includes pike. Treat a sighting as a bonus during the garden walk, rather than a reason to approach the banks. Do not throw food, disturb vegetation or try to catch anything for a photograph.

Schleißheim’s canals connect the garden’s story to the Isar and Würm. Their water was brought in through feeder channels, and sluices regulated its passage. The waterways also carried building materials and courtly pleasure boats. Looking along a narrow channel gives you a glimpse of a much larger piece of engineering.

Before the 2010–2011 parterre restoration, researchers used old plans, aerial photographs, written records and excavation to recover the earlier ornament layout. The pale gravel around the flower shapes is part of that recovered design, rather than an empty bed waiting to be planted.

The Schlosswirtschaft is at Maximilianshof 2 and normally closes on Mondays. Accessible toilets are in the Old and New Palaces, not promised as all-hours garden facilities. Paid parking is available at the New Palace. For access questions, contact the palace administration at Max-Emanuel-Platz 1 on 089 315872-0.

For an autumn visit, plan around the earlier garden closing time and the end of the fountain season. The 2026 orchard sale is at Freisinger Straße 18, with cash payment and stock-dependent availability; check its current hours separately from orchard visiting hours. Construction continues to affect the car park and access north of the Old Palace.