Darmstadt - Rosenhoehe

Darmstadt is a city in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area with a population of around 160,000. Darmstadt holds the official title "City of Science" as it is a major centre of scientific institutions, universities, and high-tech companies.

Darmstadt was chartered as a city by Emperor Ludwig IV ("The Bavarian") in 1330, at which time it belonged to the counts of Katzenelnbogen. The city became a secondary residence for the counts. When the House of Katzenelnbogen became extinct in 1479, the city was passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse and was the seat of the ruling landgraves and up to 1918 of the Grand Dukes of Hesse.

During the 19th century, the population grew from little over 10,000 to more than 70,000 inhabitants. In 1942 under the reign of the Nazis more than 3,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps where most died.

After a British bombing raid in September 1944, the old city centre was largely destroyed. During this attack, an estimated 11,000 to 12,500 inhabitants burned to death. Post-war rebuilding was done in a relatively plain architectural style, although a number of the historic buildings were rebuilt to their original appearance.

Around 1810 Wilhelmine von Baden, the wife of the later Grand Duke Ludwig II, had the Rosenhoehe Park laid out as a landscape garden on the site of a former vineyard. The current heart of the park - the Rosarium - was laid out by the last Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig around 1900.

The "Loewentor" (lion gate ) forms the entrance to the Rosenhoehe. Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig had it built for the 25th anniversary of the neighbouring artists' colony in 1927. It consists of six clinker pillars designed by Albin Mueller, on which six lion sculptures created by Bernhard Hoetger as early as 1914 were placed.

The lion sculptures are popularly known as "sneezing hedgehogs".