The park, created in several stages, is an example of changes taking place in garden art in the 18th-19th centuries as well as changes in the function served by the complex and the symbolic content it carries. The architectural structures and monuments located in the park are reminiscent of the history of the ducal family and the Prussian state.

History

In 1744, duke Karl Christian Erdmann of Württemberg-Oels inherited the assets which included a small settlement and extensive forest areas — a perfect place for hunting and leisure. These became an inspiration for the duke and architects and gardeners commissioned by him to create an urban layout connected with a hunting complex. Georg Wilhelm Schirrmeister was the first architect to direct the shaping of the whole composition. The park complex was based on a concentric star-shaped layout designed by him. The first component of the complex was a palace complex with cavaliers' house around it, surrounded by an animal farm. The French Garden (1756-1777) between Oppelner- and Louisen-Allee served as a palace salon. Websky, author of the design, divided it by an alley leading from one of the axis of the palace to the Water Salon designed by Schirrmeister. The garden was frequented by the residents of Carlsruhe (now Pokój). It was used as a venue for concerts, performances in the garden theatre, and plays.

Soon, Klöber, court gardener of the Wuerttemberg family, began work on the Large Landscape Park in Winna Góra (1780). The park featured mainly commemorative structures: temples, pavilions, monuments, and obelisks bearing inscriptions.

The Small English Park was established as the last one between the Garden and the Large Park in the first half of the 19th century. Architectural structures and sculptures were erected among the freely arranged roads. Some of them were relocated there from the Large Park.

Description

The park, coupled with a castle, consisted of three parts differing in the composition, function, and symbolic content. Deprived of care for many years and exposed to nature (and vandals), the park has retained components of the layout and infrastructure that allow for the revitalisation. In addition to the native species of trees (including pedunculate oak, common beech, common spruce, common pine, Weymouth pine, common hornbeam), there are chestnut, pin oak trees, and rhododendrons, among others.

Once rich in landscape structures, the park has retained only a part of them, including the monument of Frederick the Great, boulders called "Three Sisters" in the Large Park, stone sculptures of Diana, Venus, Minerva, Apollo (ca. 1780), muse crowning king Frederick II (1791), neo-Gothic obelisk, and monument dedicated to prince Eugen of Württemberg in the form of a cast bronze sleeping lion (1863) in the Small English Park.

The monument is open to visitors. The park is open to the public.

compiled by Joanna Szot, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Opole, 10-10-2014.

Bibliography

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