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It is not open to the public. The garden of the Presidential Palace and its history

The garden of the Presidential Palace is a place whose history dates back to the 17th century. Today, it no longer looks like it did centuries ago, but it is a valuable example of an old establishment. The garden was entered in the register of immovable monuments of the Mazovian Voivodeship on 9 October.

The decision to enter it in the register of monuments was made by the Mazovian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments. The justification states that the Garden of the Presidential Palace is a unique example of a garden setting. The garden co-creates a chain of garden layouts that stretch from Młociny to Natolin.

The history of the garden dates back to 1643, when a palace designed by Costante Tencalli was built for Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski. At that time, a garden was designed next to the palace, which was situated on an escarpment. A few years later, the residence fell into the hands of the Lanckoroński family, then the Radziwiłłs, who carried out the first of many rearrangements of the garden in 1685.

Koniecpolski Palace in Warsaw in an engraving by Erik Dahlberg, 1656

One hundred years later, in the second half of the 18th century, the palace was rebuilt. The project for this reconstruction by the Saxon architect Johann Sigmund Deybel von Hammerau was prepared for Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł.

The garden work was then directed by Carl Georg Knackfuss, who restored the division into 4 terraces connected to each other by ramps and stairs, and designed numerous water pools, water features and decorative parterres, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage informs in a press release.

Another reconstruction took place in 1818 after the property was taken over by the government of the Congress Kingdom. The plan was to transform the garden into a landscaped setting, with clumps of trees and shrubs, water bodies and alleys. However, after 1918, the palace served as the seat of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers.

The reconstruction of the residence was managed by the architect Marian Lalewicz, who, in terms of greenery, decided to combine solutions characteristic of 17th- and 18th-century garden layouts and modernism, the ministry adds.

During World War II, the garden’s wooden orangery was destroyed, but the remaining buildings and greenery luckily survived. For several years after the war (until 1951), the residence served government functions and a project was then prepared to rearrange the garden into a place of monumental expression. The project was prepared by Gerard Ciołek. This concept was never realised, which is why the garden still boasts its pre-war appearance today.

photo by Aldona Tołysz, WUZO in Warsaw

The garden of the Presidential Palace bears traces of transformation from centuries ago. This can be seen in the development of the two upper terraces with decorative water reservoirs and the figures of reclining lions, which were moved in the 1920s, previously decorating the building of the Warsaw Mint. Valuable elements of the garden are the compositional elements, terraces, water reservoirs and buildings. They are reminiscent of Italian garden arrangements from the 17th and 18th centuries.

source: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

Read also: Places, Squares, Parks | Warsaw | History | Monument | whiteMAD on Instagram

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