Japanese Garden, Bonndorf

The garden belongs to the modern public-park layer around Bonndorf Castle rather than to the original historic castle-garden phase. The castle itself has upper and lower castle gardens, while later public landscape works connected the Schlossgarten with a wider park and spa-garden environment. Current tourism descriptions place the Japanese Garden directly below the castle and describe it as part of the Bonndorf Kurpark / Schlossgarten experience.

The main design idea was to preserve the existing green corridor reaching toward Bonndorf’s town centre while making it more attractive and ecologically meaningful for residents and visitors. The park was not conceived only as a pass-through green space, but as an Erlebnisgarten, or experiential garden, with objects and landscape elements intended to make natural forces perceptible. The concept is organised around the elements earth, water, air and fire; the Ehrenbach stream, ponds, marshy meadow and orchard form important parts of this wider composition.

The development of the park began from 1980 in several construction phases in the Obertal valley, through which the Ehrenbach flows. The official Bonndorf brochure states that ponds and a marsh meadow were created there, and that the existing green zone was to be preserved while being enhanced beyond its ecological value. A later article describes the Japanese landscape garden as having been built between 1993 and 1995, covering around 2.5 hectares; another local source gives 1994 as the inauguration year.