Stuttgart Zoo and Chocolate Factory

Spend the day at Wilhema Park. one of Germany’s best zoos, and end it with a walk through the Ritter Sport museum.

Today's Wilhelma Park belongs to the historical heritage of Baden-Württemberg. The park has undergone a transition from being the purely private retreat of a king to become the zoological and botanical gardens of Stuttgart, with just over 2.1 million yearly visitors.

Originally planned as private gardens, the park, with buildings in the Moorish style, was intended to serve the Swabian king, King Wilhelm I, as living quarters and also to be used for representative purposes. In those times, in the middle of the 19th century, Moorish architecture had come into fashion amongst the royal families of Europe.

The king therefore "ordered" a Moorish park from his architect, Karl Ludwig Zanth. It was to bear the name "Wilhelma". The most outstanding example of Moorish architecture, even in those days, was the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. And so Wilhelma is also known as the Alhambra on the R. Neckar.

The Ritter museum is a "homage to the square"—to describe the Sammlung Marli Hoppe-Ritter. The collection consists of nearly 600 paintings, objects, sculptures and graphic works, a breadth of painterly and sculptural confrontation with the square form used as the design for the Ritter chocolate. Ritter's factory is located in Waldenbuch, outside Stuttgart. They have shops and museums in Waldenbuch that are open to visitors. The museum provides children with an interactive environment where they are presented with the opportunity to learn about how chocolate is made at the factory. When you are finished, you can then treat yourself with a wide variety of chocolate from there Chocolate shop.