Wilhelma - Zoological-botanical garden

Stuttgart, Germany, Germany

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Wilhelma in Stuttgart is Germany's only combined zoological and botanical garden, featuring around 11,000 animals of approximately 1,200 species alongside approximately 8,500 plant species and varieties from all climate zones on Earth. Located in the Bad Cannstatt district on about 30 hectares, it is one of the most species-rich zoos not only in Germany but worldwide, and ranks as the second most diverse zoo in Germany after Berlin's Zoological Garden. The garden was originally created as King Wilhelm I of Württemberg's private pleasure garden starting in 1842, with buildings laid out in Moorish style that evoke the flair of 1001 Nights, and was opened to the public as a botanical garden in 1880 after the monarchy ended. After most of the complex was destroyed during World War II, Wilhelma gradually transformed from a purely botanical garden into a zoological-botanical garden beginning in 1949 with an aquarium show, and the 19th-century park remains a protected cultural monument often called the "Alhambra on the Neckar". The facility attracts over one million visitors annually and includes historic buildings, greenhouses, and an educational area where young apes from across Europe are raised if their parents cannot care for them.