A quarry turned into 124 acres of park
The Höhenpark Killesberg covers about 50 hectares, roughly 124 acres, on the high ground of Stuttgart-Nord. It was laid out in 1939 as the grounds for a national horticultural show staged under the Nazi regime, on a site that had previously been worked as a quarry. The terracing and the sunken garden rooms that make the park interesting today are a direct result of that industrial past.
What you get now is a landscape park rather than a lawn: level changes, rock faces, water, flower terraces and long views out over the city. It is where Stuttgart goes on a warm weekend.
The tower and the little train
The Killesbergturm, built in 2001 by the engineering office Schlaich Bergermann, is 42 meters tall, about 138 feet. It is not a solid structure but a lattice of steel cables around a central mast, with a spiral stair winding up through the open web. Climbing it is free and the whole thing moves slightly in the wind, which is by design and does unsettle some people. The view from the top takes in the city and the surrounding hills.
The other fixture is the Killesbergbähnle, a narrow-gauge miniature railway that loops through the grounds. It is a genuine small train rather than a fairground ride, and it is the reason families with small children rate this park above every other green space in Stuttgart.
Practical notes
The address is Stresemannstraße 39, 70192 Stuttgart. The park is open ground and free to enter; the railway runs on its own seasonal schedule.
Half a day is the honest allowance if you have children or intend to walk the whole site. The Weissenhofsiedlung, the 1927 UNESCO-listed modernist estate, is in the same part of Stuttgart-Nord, which makes an architecture morning followed by a park afternoon a sensible pairing.
