Westpark

About this place

Westpark is a public park in southwestern Munich of about sixty-nine hectares, and it exists because of a single event: the International Garden Show the city hosted in 1983. The landscape architect Peter Kluska laid it out on ground that had been gravel pits and scattered allotments, sculpting it with artificial hills and hollows so that no one spot shows you the whole of it. When the show ended the park was kept rather than dismantled. The most valuable inheritance from that show is the Asian ensemble in the eastern half, entirely unexpected in a Bavarian residential district: a Japanese garden laid out by gardeners from Sapporo, Munich's twin city; a Thai wooden sala sheltering a Buddha figure described as the first free-standing Buddha raised in Europe; a Nepalese pagoda in dark timber carved by craftsmen in Nepal specifically for the exhibition; and a Chinese garden. A large rose garden and two lakes round it out. The park is cut in two by a road, with footbridges linking the halves. Daily use is purely local: running, walking, family barbecues in summer. The one event that pulls the whole city out here is the open-air cinema on the lake stage, Kino Mond und Sterne, in July and August. Be realistic about it: this is not the English Garden and not a destination in its own right, but it is a good hour if you are staying nearby or want a quiet day away from the centre.