Stuttgart Zoo

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.