The delightfully eccentric gardens of Roseburg are founded on the remains of a 16th century castle, occupying a limestone ridge in foothills of the Harz. The site was acquired in 1905 by the architect Bernhard Sehring (1855-1941), who began to turn it into a true folly loosely modeled as a mock medieval fortification including turrets, drawbridges and 1600 meters of perimeter wall with embrasures. Later additions expanded the gardens across the site, were elements of renaissance, mannerist, baroque and landscape garden styles are mixed at will and combined with art deco architectural gestures. A belvedere tower, with an open air library and mausoleum grotto, is placed at the top of the site, forming the offset for a 100 meter terraced water axis or catena d’aqua, concluding in a raised plateau overlooking the countryside. A wealth of sculpture (including an army of putti) and architecture is found everywhere in the garden, which surprises at every turn and appears much larger than it actually is. This is a truly unique layout, reminiscent only of equally spleeny endeavors such as Gabrielle d’Annunzios ‘Il Vittoriale’ on Lago Garda , Dr. Peyrons villa in Fiesole , or Sir Clough Williams-Ellis’ Portmeiron on the Welsh coast.
