Prague: Its Gardens and Parks

The Czech metropolis just wouldn´t look the same if its evolution had not been marked by the thousand year evolution of its gardens and parks - at its castles, monasteries an palaces, public and private. The author provides a briliant, comprehensive and erudite picture of how Prague´s parks nad gardens were formed and took shape, showing how they have changed since the Middle Ages, adapting to each succesive period and style, with the Baroque dominating. The Guide section is devoted to group of parks and gardens, treated according to their connection to particular localities, beginning with the Castle and Hradčany, moving on through the Lesser Quarter, the New Town and Vyšehrad to arrive at the districts that have emerged in modern times. The focus is on entities that go with major cultural monuments, but the former royal game parks and modern botanical gardens are by no means overlooked. The book benefits immenesly from its carefully selected photographs and illustrations from key historical documents, a glossary, an overview of species of trees and shurbs, and lists of prominent individuals and the relevant localities. With some of the historic gardens the author explains in detail the unique spatial relationships that make them particularly special.

Meandering past flower-framed baroque statues to renaissance loggias, romantic pavilions, elegant stairways, and bubbling fountains, the book explores Prague’s gardens and parks by locality, offering novel insight into the city’s different sections that will delight all educated travelers and lovers of Prague. For gardeners, descriptions of some historical gardens also include explanations of their specific spatial relations, connecting them to the larger story of European urban garden design. Complemented with a glossary of terms and an index of important figures and locations, this beautiful celebration of Prague’s remarkable living botanical art, both past and present, sheds new light on the leafy corners of this adored European capital.