  For an investigation of the physical properties of gravitational fields the
observation of massive test particles and light is very useful. The
characteristic features of a given space-time may be decoded by studying the
complete set of all possible geodesic motions. Such a thorough analysis can be
accomplished most effectively by using analytical methods to solve the geodesic
equation. In this contribution, the use of elliptic functions and their
generalizations for solving the geodesic equation in a wide range of well known
space-times, which are part of the general Pleba\'nski-Demia\'nski family of
solutions, will be presented. In addition, the definition and calculation of
observable effects like the perihelion shift will be presented and further
applications of the presented methods will be outlined.
