Poland’s Amazing Valley of Palaces & Gardens
Near the town of Jelenia Góra in Poland there’s a beautiful area called the Valley of Palaces and Gardens. Nestled among picturesque mountains, it contains over thirty outstanding palaces and castles, many of which are neighboured by impressive parks.
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Park at Mysłakowice Palace, photo: Tomasz Pietrzyk / AW
In the southwest fringes of Poland lies the town of Jelenia Góra, which is surrounded by such picturesque mountain ranges as the Karkonosze and the Izera Mountains. The local area is rich with historic architecture – in a relatively small space of 100 square kilometres around the town you can find over 30 outstanding palaces and castles. Some of them date back as far as the Middle Ages, though the area really gained its unique character in the 19th century when Jelenia Góra was part of Prussia. That’s when the Prussian royal Hohenzollern family turned the palace in Mysłakowice near Jelenia Góra into its summer residence.
The presence of the Hohenzollerns in the region began to attract German aristocrats who started to establish their own residences nearby. As a result, a number of local palaces were remodelled in various architectural styles and sizeable parks were created next to them.
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[This area] was famous for the artists linked to these landscape parks; the best garden architects in all of Europe worked on them. The same architects planned the layouts of parks in Potsdam and Berlin.
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From the 2020 Polish Radio broadcast ‘Dolina Pałaców i Ogrodów – Jedyne Takie Miejsce w Europie’, trans. MK
The parks were located so close to one another that they formed an almost interconnected system, creating an amazing area of gardens and palaces. Due to the turbulent 20th-century history of Europe, the Jelenia Góra region became part of Poland, and its residences were abandoned by their original owners. Nowadays the palaces serve various purposes; they’re used, for example, as hotels, schools, and conference centres. In 2012, 11 of the historic residencies from the Valley of Palaces and Gardens, along with their parks, were officially declared Monuments of History, or exceptionally valuable monuments. Below you can find descriptions of seven of these eleven sites that are particularly noteworthy.
We start off in the village of Bukowiec where you can find the classicist Bukowiec Palace. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, it was purchased by Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden who had it remodelled – that’s when this building gained its current shape. It’s a three-storey structure covered with a mansard roof, which has two tower-like avant-corps in its southwest corner. Nowadays, it serves as the seat of the Karkonosze Districts Association.
In the 19th century a park was created next to the building:
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After visiting England, Friedrich von Reden, who had become enchanted with the English way of landscaping nature, decided to create a Romantic park in Bukowiec. In order to do so, he invited to his estate the gardener Hans Karl Walther, who designed the entire garden.
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From zgk.karkonosze.eu, trans. MK
These days, the park in Bukowiec covers an area of about 120 hectares and includes, among other things, eleven ponds and historical pavilions. In the park you also can find a restored old brewery, housing a multimedia museum devoted to the fauna and flora of the Jelenia Góra region. This museum is overseen by the Foundation of the Valley of Palaces and Gardens, which promotes the cultural heritage of the Jelenia Góra area.
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Karpniki Castle, photo: Marek Maruszak / Forum
About three kilometres to the northeast of Bukowiec lies the village of Karpniki. There stands the impressive Karpniki Castle, which dates back to the 15th century. Surrounded by a moat, it was originally a defensive castle. However, in its long history it underwent numerous reconstructions, including a renaissance one, and eventually became a residential building. In the 19th century, it was purchased by Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, who had the building remodelled in a neo-gothic style.
Apart from neo-gothic elements, the three-storey building with an inner courtyard includes other traces of its long past: a cylindrical tower from the 15th century and renaissance portals with sculptural embellishments. It currently houses a hotel whose interiors reference the castle’s historical furnishings.
A 5-hectare landscape park was created next to the castle in the 19th century. This marvellous green area is home to ancient oaks, beech, and lindens. It is part of the Rudawski Landscape Park, a protected nature area where you can find peaceful forests and ponds.
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Wojanów Palace, photo: Dariusz Zarod / East News
The village of Wojanów is only a ten-minute drive to the northwest from Bukowiec. In it you can find the fairy tale-like Wojanów Palace, a prime example of neo-gothic architecture. It was given its current shape in the 1830s, when its owner Karl Albrecht Ike had the building remodelled. In earlier years, the palace had a renaissance and also a baroque form. A characteristic feature of the three-storey palace is its four corner towers topped with funnel-like roofs.
Today, Wojanów Palace serves as a hotel and conference centre. It’s surrounded by a magnificent park that covers an area of a dozen or so hectares:
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The landscape park was created in the 1830s and was refashioned in the mid-19th century by the royal Prussian architect Peter Lenné (1789-1866). The Wojanów Park exhibits traits characteristic of this architect’s style: a large number of grassy areas; views of faraway landscapes; picturesque tree arrangements.
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From zabytki.pl, trans. MK
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Łomnica Palace, photo: palac-lomnica.pl
Just across the River Bóbr from Wojanów Palace, stands the sightly Łomnica Palace. This baroque edifice, located in the village of Łomnica, gained most of its current form in the early 18th century. A century later it was modernized – an additional storey was added, and the building’s windows were made bigger. Today, Łomnica Palace is a three-storey structure with two characteristic corner extensions in the front façade.
The palace houses a museum where the building’s long history is presented in rooms furnished with historic objects. Visitors can see, for example, a baroque kitchen and the office of Christian Mentzel, a merchant who owned Łomnica Palace in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Next to the palace there’s a landscape park which was most probably created in the 1830s. The 9-hectare park is beautifully located on the banks of the River Bóbr and harmonizes with the local terrain. It’s worth adding that Wojanów Palace is neighboured by another historical building – the Widow’s House. This 19th century manor presently serves as a hotel.
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Mysłakowice Palace, photo: Travelphoto / Forum
Four kilometres to the southeast from Wojanów Palace, in the village of Mysłakowice, you’ll find the elegant Mysłakowice Palace. In the 1830s, the Prussian king Frederick William III turned it into his summer residence. In that period the palace was a neo-classicist building, though after the king’s death in 1840, it was remodelled in a neo-gothic style. During that reconstruction, the edifice gained its conspicuous octagonal tower topped with a crenelated platform. Nowadays, the Mysłakowice Palace houses a school.
Next to the palace there’s a fabulous 13-hectare park, which was designed in the 1830s by the aforementioned Peter Lenné. Here’s how the park’s original design, which has been somewhat altered by time, was described in the 2010 article The Layout of the Landscape at Mysłakowice by Aleksandra Hoffmann-Marszałek:
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One can distinguish three areas in the Mysłakowice Park: the decorative garden […] right by the palace, which was formed by flower beds, rare plants, bushes, and decorative trees; the proper palace park with a number of water bodies, enclosed from the north and south by large meadows; and the surrounding landscape of the Karkonosze Mountains. Lenné incorporated into his design views of faraway places, which blurred the boundaries between the manmade and natural landscape.
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From the periodical ‘Technical Transactions: Architecture’, trans. MK
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Park at Staniszów Palace, photo: Zenon Zyburtowicz / East News
In under 15 minutes you can travel by car from Frederick William III’s former palace to the village of Staniszów, located to the west from Mysłakowice. There stands the charming Staniszów Palace, which is estimated to date back to the 16th century. Over the ages the building was given various looks: renaissance; baroque; classicist. These days, the three-storey palace sports a number of intriguing architectural details such as stone portals, corner extensions, and dormer windows.
Staniszów Palace, which currently serves as a hotel, is neighboured by a pleasant, historical park:
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Staniszów Palace’s park was designed by Peter Lenné and is one of the first English style gardens in Lower Silesia. The park’s varied scenery includes numerous rock formations, rich tree life, and beautiful long-distance views. It’s an example of a harmonious mix between natural landscape conditions and the extraordinary imagination of an architect.
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From palacstaniszow.pl, trans. MK
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Schaffgotsch Palace in Cieplice, photo: Rafał Jabłoński / East News
Our final residence is located about 3.5 kilometres to the east from Staniszów in Cieplice, an area of Jelenia Góra. This sizeable edifice is called Schaffgotsch Palace after the surname of the aristocratic family that used to own it. In the years 1777 and 1783 the palace, which dates back to the 15th century, was badly damaged by fires. Five years after the second fire it was rebuilt in a style combining baroque and classicist elements. The building has retained this form, and today you can still notice two sculpted representations of the Schaffgotsch family’s coat of arms in its northern façade. The palace currently houses a branch of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.
The palace’s southern façade overlooks a splendid English-style garden covering an area of about 16 hectares. This park was designed in the 19th century by the architect Anton Mallickh and a gardener known as Walter of Bukowiec. In addition to wonderful green areas, in the park you also can find a few interesting historical structures such as the so-called Gallery, a classicist building referencing Italian Renaissance villas.
Among the other notable places in the Valley of Palaces and Gardens you can find, for instance, the Siedlęcin Tower, whose interior is decorated with unique mediaeval polychromes or the centuries-old Chojnik Castle, picturesquely situated on top of a rocky mountain. Due to its many interesting sites located close to one another, the valley is a great destination for a road trip. It’s best to see it in person!
Written by Marek Kępa, Nov 2021
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