As a child I’d wait all year for Furhman’s Cider Mill to open up for the fall in my hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Not only could you bring your milk jugs and have them filled with the world’s best fresh apple cider, they had a huge selection of pumpkins and gords from the local nearby pumpkin patch. But I never liked eating pumpkin. Until we moved to Italy and I was introduced to the annual Venzone Festa della Zucca. Admittedly, there aren’t many pumpkins at the Venzone Pumpkin Festival; it’s more about the amazing food like pizza with pumpkin, proscuitto and parmesan and pumpkin ravioli and the medieval traditions of the town. So when I heard about the world’s largest pumpkin festival boasting over 400,000 pumpkins, I just had to go!
The world’s largest pumpkin festival takes place annually in the gardens at Schloss Ludwigsburg, Germany’s largest baroque palace, just 12 kilometers from Stuttgart.
Each year the pumpkin festival has a theme represented in pumpkin art. The 2012 theme was Switzerland and our journey began with encountering life size cows made of pumpkins. How fitting since we had spent time hiking amongst Swiss cows in Appenzell earlier this spring! Winding our way down the hillside, we passed through a pumpkin market with pumpkins in a variety of colors from around the world. And then we saw it.
A village of pumpkins spread out below us complete with the Matterhorn, Swiss yodelers, and a larger than life Swiss army knife!
We walked along the wooden pathways by a festival frog and owl fountain made of – you guessed it! – pumpkins. Giant pumpkins were intricately carved into monkeys, haunted houses, and gruesome ghouls. A mini zoo of pumpkins piled into puppies, cats, rams, and owls made me squeal and clap my hands like a child.
The afternoon sun glinted off Rapunzel’s tower, built in 1798 and not at all damaged in World War II like most of the other historical buildings in Germany, and a mountain ram “grazed” in front of the tower as children shouted up for Rapunzel to let her hair down.
We caught the sweet smells of pumpkin and cinnamon wafting through the air and followed our noses to the food booths. We stood drooling over the menu, wanting to taste it all! We finally settled on pumpkin soup drizzled with balsamic and garnished with pumpkin seeds, rice with roasted pumpkin and vegetables, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin wine.
The chili coated pumpkin seeds were still hot in the paper as I clutched the spicy-sweet treats and wandered around to see a scene from Heidi made entirely out of pumpkins, a house displaying more than 450 varieties of pumpkins from around the world, and prize winning pumpkins weighing in at more than 1200 pounds! (And those chili coated pumpkin seeds were so delicious, Tim and I both went back for two more bags for a snack later.)
The world’s largest pumpkin festival was such a delicious and fun way to spend a gorgeous fall day in Germany!
Know Before You Go
- The annual Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival runs from the last weekend in August through the first weekend of November each year. Verify the dates at the World’s Largest Pumpkin Festival website (only available in German).
- Opening times are from 9am – 6pm daily.
- Tickets to the gardens are €8 for adults and €3.90 for children 15 years old and younger. Family tickets {two adults and two children 15 years old and younger} cost €21.50. Cash only.
- Dogs are allowed in the palace gardens.
- Free parking is available.
Jeff Titelius says
This is fabulous…I have never seen such an elaborate pumpkin festival and all of those sculptures are so creative! I would love to visit this one day! Thanks for your tour and photos are gorgeous too.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Thanks, Jeff! It was definitely the best pumpkin festival we have ever been to and I’m really glad we could make it this year.
Natalie says
I don’t like pumpkins either but a festival like this would be something that i would enjoy
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Isn’t the pumpkin art just incredible? Definitely go if you have the chance to Natalie!
Ali says
That’s awesome! I love all the different sculptures made out of pumpkins. This looks like a lot of fun!
Jennifer Dombrowski says
You and Andy should go next year! It really was a great festival and I’d love to be able to go annually.
Cheryl Howard says
Ha ha ha! Wow, the festival is pretty awesome. I love the creativity that goes into the “Pumpkin art.” 🙂
Jennifer says
It really is an awesome festival. I so wish we could make it there again this year!
Travel Scamming says
Wow, I had no idea they made pumpkin wine!! Sounds great…
Kenin Bassart says
That’s awesome! Lauren absolutely loves pumpkin festivals and this looks like you’ve hit the motherload!
Jennifer says
This pumpkin festival would be right up Lauren’s alley, then! I have seriously never seen so many pumpkins in my life. And those chili pumpkin seeds – yum! I’d go back just for more of those!
Frank says
Nice post Jen, can’t believe there are so many uses for pumpkins!
Frank (bbqboy)
Jennifer says
In Europe, they cook so much with pumpkin. I never really liked it much aside from pumpkin pie, but I absolutely love all the pumpkin food this time of the year!
Cathy Sweeney says
Fun, fun, fun! I wish that this festival was on my itinerary this fall, but I do have a pumpkin festival nearby at Half Moon Bay, California. Really great pics — they get me in the fall spirit.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
This year’s theme looks right up my alley – there will be bears! Sadly, I don’t think we’ll make it though. Definitely my favorite fall festival I’ve been to in Europe though.
Angela says
OMG Love the pumpkin sculptures! There is a pumpkin festival coming up in Seattle that I am going to check out. I just love autumn!
Jennifer says
Sounds fun, Angela! Autumn is such a gorgeous time of year with all the leaves changing. They haven’t started just yet where we live in Italy. Should be soon though!
Devlin @ Marginal Boundaries says
Some great pumpkin art there.
Jennifer says
The pumpkin art is seriously impressive! We wish we could make it back again this year.
Jennifer says
It's very tasty! We've actually got a bottle we bought there. Time to pop it open with some pumpkin ravioli or risotto!
cecilia says
Beautiful pictures and looks like fun for family.We are driving from Italy to bring the kids there 2 weeks from now, Any recommendation where to stay and other stuff to do?
Tim Davis says
The kids will love the festival. We’re kind of car buffs so stayed at the V-8 hotel which is about 30 minutes from the festival. They have some cute rooms and I’m sure the kids would get a kick out of them. Stuttgart is also home to Porsche so we continued our trip with a stop at the Porsche museum in Stuttgart.
Joe Daues says
This is our sister city, Ludwigsburg. Our city is St Charles Missouri. A great hotel in the center of town is hotel Nestor. The Pumpkin Festival is in the Palace garden. Tour the palace which is the largest fully furnished 452 rooms in Europe. There are many different types of gardens in the grounds but with children you must see the fairytale garden. I think another must see in the area is the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Be sure you drink the local wine Trollinger and of the local specialty dish called Maultaschen. Have fun!