The upper terrace
A framed view over the rooftops into the city basin.
Mussklprozz — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fabian Riedle — CC BY-SA 4.0 · qwesy qwesy — CC BY 3.0 · Elena Ternovaja — CC BY-SA 4.0
A small Chinese garden on a terrace of the slope between central Stuttgart and the Killesberg plateau. It was built in 1993 for the international garden exhibition and first stood in Rosenstein Park, then was taken apart, moved, and rebuilt on its present site on Birkenwaldstrasse by Chinese craftsmen brought over for the job. Its formal name is the Garden of the Beautiful Melody. The style is thoroughly southern Chinese: a central pavilion with four openings facing the four directions, roof corners lifted upward, a small waterfall running into a pond, zigzag bridges, stone figures, and circular openings that frame the view like hung pictures. The whole thing covers only about fifteen hundred square metres, and every detail follows the old Chinese rule that a garden should be revealed in stages rather than all at once. Entry is free and the gates are open daily from seven in the morning to eight in the evening, and a quarter to half an hour is enough to walk it unhurried. The upper terrace above the pavilion is the part worth standing on: from there you look straight over the rooftops into the floor of the Stuttgart basin. Because it is small and not permanently staffed it can look tired at the edges in some seasons, and the best time is a weekday morning when it is completely empty.
A framed view over the rooftops into the city basin.
Four openings for the four directions, in south Chinese style.
Birkenwaldstrasse 200, 70191 Stuttgart
StadtgartenStuttgart's Stadtgarten is a relatively small green space in a pivotal position:9 minutes walk4.4
Hoppenlau CemeteryThis is the oldest surviving cemetery in Stuttgart, laid out in 1626 outside the11 minutes walk4.6
Cathedral Church of St EberhardThis is the Catholic cathedral church of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, st11 minutes walk4.5
Carl Zeiss PlanetariumThe Carl Zeiss Planetarium in Stuttgart is among the most important in Germany, 11 minutes walk4.4
Theodor Heuss HouseThis was the house of Theodor Heuss, the first President of the Federal Republic12 minutes walk4.4Only if you are already walking up to Killesberg or to the Weissenhof housing estate. It covers fifteen hundred square metres and half an hour exhausts it, but combined with the climb up Birkenwaldstrasse and the view from the top it makes a pleasant pause on the way.