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The design of Prague's gardens and parks – especially the green spaces of its palaces, castles, and monastery complexes, both private and public – is inseparable from the millennium-long efflorescence of this exquisite Czech metropolis. Lushly illustrated with nearly one hundred and fifty original colour photographs and archival images, Prague: Parks and Gardens not only shares the latest findings on these gardens' historical foundation and stylistic transformations, but also takes us through the garden gates into individual gardens and parks – both Prague's most visited and its undiscovered green gems.
Meandering past flower-framed baroque statues to renaissance loggias, romantic pavilions, elegant stairways, and bubbling fountains, Prague: Gardens and Parks 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.
Božena Pacáková-Hošťálková works at the National Heritage Institute in Prague, where she specializes in monuments of garden art. A passionate botanist, David Short works as a translator, interpreter, and editor.
