Restoration of a nineteenth century garden in Kamieniec

Since 2008 I am working on a field of historic gardens restoration. Since then I have prepared 20 complete restoration plans and 60 study documents and analysis - all of them made for the historic gardens, parks and even towns.

Every garden is unique. So the story of it's restoration is unique as well. Even if there are common phases between different restorations then always each project is a completely new adventure. I would like to write a bit about the restoration of a tiny 19th century garden in Kamieniec (Lower Silesia, Poland).

Palace in Kamieniec was built by the Count von Hartig at the end of the eighteenth century. The building was raised on a rectangular plan and on the southern side of it there was a small decorative and vegetable walled garden. The property in Kamieniec bloomed during the reign of von Seherr-Thoss family. Count Arthur von Seherr-Thoss was looking for a place to create a family seat. In 1893 he enlarged a baroque palace by raising the northern, eclectic wing and transforming the main entrance to the building. The garden was transformed as well. According to the picturesque fashion in gardening spreading across Europe the little garden in Kamieniec was shaped in the 19th century as a finest (but still for private use) example of so called "Prussian garden".

Picture below: panoramic view at the main garden's interior at Kamieniec - 1930

The garden was really small both in 18th and in 19th century. It was created on an area of 5000 sq m. Between 1893 and 1900 the whole area was divided into two main garden interiors. The central one was linked to the facade of the palace and to the Tea House pavilion (dated back to the end of the 18th century).

The border of a garden wasn't walled anymore in the 19th century. But even then there wasn't any direct prospect axis linking the garden's interior with the magnificent landscape outside. There was a double reason of it. First of all it was because of the wind. The place where tha palace was raised is really windy through the most time of a year. Previous owners of the palace were complaining about it in their letters and diaries. That's why while creating a picturesque garden they have decided to keep the baroque row planting in the borders of a garden and to thicken it at the same time. The pavilion and the small slope located in the western part of a garden where the only viewpoints linking the garden with the Kłodzko Valley.

The glory of the garden and the palace passed away after 1945. Fortunately the wind has changed in 2009 when a couple from Warsaw (now my dearest friends) decided to buy and to restore the property. I have started to work on a restoration project for this residence in 2013 when all of the difficult works inside the palace were finished.

Picture above: model showing the garden in Kamieniec in 1890's - drawn by Ł. Przybylak

Between 1945 and 2009 almost 70% of a historic treestand disappeared. Thanks to the archives, analysis and some discoveries made while working in the garden it was possible for me to create a model of a garden in it's condition from 1890's. To illustrate the degradation's scale I have prepared as well a model showing the condition of a garden in 2013.

Picture above: model showing the garden in Kamieniec in 2013 - drawn by Ł. Przybylak

The main goal of this project was to restore the space of a historic garden (the garden isn't listed in the register of monuments) by bringing back the main and most characteristic elements of it's original layout. Because of the lack of a historic trees (especially those growing before in the central part of a garden) I have decided to keep a few self-sowings which weren't disturibing the historic links inside the garden. Few others were replanted into the historically proved locations.

In terms of restoration the most important part in case of Kamieniec's garden was to recreate the paths and the planting. Both of this aspects where fully reconstructed. In the area of a historic garden we have used only documented plant species in their historic locations or those which were popular in the 19th century gardening.

Picture above: view at the pavilion's ruin with a digged path trough - 2014

Picture above: view at the pavilion's ruin with a reconstructed mineral path and planting - fall 2016

Picture below: view at the palace from the eastern side of the main garden's interior - December 2013

Picture above: view at the palace from the eastern side of the main garden's interior - November 2015

Picture above: view at the garden's slope and the place where the main stairs supposed to be - December 2013

Picture above: view at the garden's slope and garden's main stairs - June 2018

As a new chapter in the history of this place together with the owners of the palace I have decided to extend the historic garden into the south. I have doubled it's area by creating a 2500 sq m garden interior fully opened into the landscape and shaped according to the rules of "prussian gardening". The ruin of an old pavilion is still a viewpoint (extended into the south with a wooden platform). We have cleaned as well a slope where the second historic viewpoint was created in the 19th century. On the top of it we have built a rustic stone bench. Further into the south we have created a 2500 sq m flower meadow.

Picture above: model showing the garden in Kamieniec after the restoration begun in 2013 - drawn by Ł. Przybylak

As a result I have created a smooth continuity starting from the historic garden's part, crossing the new picturesue interior, flower meadow and linking it all together with the landscape surrounding the property. Like in the picturesque gardens it should be, there are no borders between garden and the landscape. Becaue the Southern Garden was created as a completely new (but in a historic taste) part of the estate I wanted to furnish it with a historic looking features. That's why I've designed a classic wooden arbour (very British looking ;) ) as a seat from which anyone could admire the beauty of Klodzko Valley's landscape.

Picture above: view at the wooden arbour with the border planting and the palace in the background - summer 2016, picture by R. Lipski

In the old farm yard I have designed a garden as well. Shaped as a picturesque garden with annuals and perennials used in the 19th century. In the "new" northern garden I have designed a formal element. A tiny regular herb garden (framed with a box hedges) was located directly on the axis of the northern wing and just outside the kitchen's backdoor. A car yard was moved to the border of a property and hidden behind the bushes (so that a person walking through this garden can't see the cars).

Not only planting, paths (which are right now in a form as they were in 1890's) but also furniture, fences, garden stairs, pots were a part of my work for Kamieniec. While working with an old iconography I have reconstructed the form a 19th century cast iron fence (which was stolen after 1945). On the main axis of the garden I have designed the grand garden stairs using an old sandstone from the destroyed farm buildings and decorated with a cast iron vases (where as it was 100 years ago agaves are growing). The main part of a restoration process in Kamieniec was finished in 2015.

Picture above: cast iron vase (one of a set of two) decorating the top of the main garden stairs - June 2016

But because restoration of a historic garden is a never ending work the progress is still going on. Last summer we have recreated a 19th century clumps located in the historically documented locations and in the most important (in terms of spatial composition) places. Another part of plants was planted as well.

Pictures below: 19th century clumps planted in summer 2018 - June 2018

I am really proud of this project in many aspects. But what of I am proud the most is the fact that the owners of the palace allowed me to treat their garden and it's surrounding exactly as those gardens which are listed - what is not so obvious. I would like to invite to visit Palace Kamieniec and the beautiful Kłodzko Valley: www.palackamieniec.pl