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The Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, also known as the English Grounds of Wörlitz, is one of the first and largest English parks in Germany and continental Europe. It was created in the late 18th century under the regency of Duke Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817), returning from a Grand Tour to Italy, the Netherlands, England, France and Switzerland he had undertaken together with his friend architect Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff. Both strongly influenced by the ideals of The Enlightenment, they aimed to overcome the formal garden concept of the Baroque era in favour of a naturalistic landscape as they had seen at StourheadGardens and Ermenonville. Today the cultural landscape of Dessau-Wörlitz encompasses an area of 142 km2 (55 sq mi) within the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Mosigkau Castle in the west of Dessau is one of the few Rococo palaces in Central Germany, resembling Sanssouci at Potsdam, which had been designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff. It was built between 1752 and 1757 forAnna Wilhelmine of Anhalt-Dessau, the daughter of Prince Leopold I. The ensemble includes an orangery and an art collection of Flemish Baroque painting, stemming from Duke John George's II union with the House of Orange-Nassau, that features works by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.