About this place
Stretching for miles along the western bank of the Isar, the Englischer Garten was opened to the public in 1789 by Elector Karl Theodor, a radical gesture in an age when green space belonged to kings. Sir Benjamin Thompson, later Count Rumford, oversaw its creation, and the master gardener Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell shaped its flowing meadows, winding paths, and artificial lake in the naturalistic English style that gave the park its name. Today it is a democratic playground where sunbathers, joggers, and beer drinkers share the lawns beneath the Chinese Tower and the Greek-style Monopteros temple. But its most unexpected treasure sits at the southern edge, where the man-made Eisbach channel produces a churning standing wave. Here, since the early 1970s, Munich's surfers have queued to ride an ocean sport transplanted into the heart of a landlocked Bavarian city.
Key facts
- 375 hectares — The park's size, making it larger than New York's Central Park
- 1789 year — Elector Karl Theodor opened the former hunting grounds to the public
- 1972 year — The year surfers first began riding the standing Eisbach wave
📍 Prinzregentenstraße, 81675, München