Grant Map EU

On May 11, 2019, the Royal Castle in Warsaw officially opened its recreated gardens to the public. For the first time, they accompany a residence worthy of the seat of the kings and the Republic. The gardens returned in dialogue with their past, with the tradition of the place and the forms rooted here. The absence of gardens was very visible in the landscape of Warsaw. In the past, from the eighteenth century, from the times of King Stanisław August, attempts were made to develop the area under the Castle. Whenever the opportunity arose, the course of history interrupted efforts to achieve the goal.

The first mentions of the Castle Garden come from the 15th century, i.e. from the distant times of the Mazovian dukes. In the centuries that followed, its fate was changing – as a result of historical turmoil, it appeared and disappeared, contracted and expanded, fell into neglect and regained its splendor. The castle gardens – the Upper Garden revitalized in 2015 and the Lower Garden in 2018 – form a mutually complementary whole, stylistically combining the spirit of interwar modernism with elements of baroque art.

Work on the reconstruction of the gardens lasted from 2013 to 2019. The project covered an area of ​​over 2.5 ha, and its basis was to be reconstructed – as far as possible – hornbeam diviners. The project includes the return of numerous elements of park architecture: fountains, vases with vegetation, benches, paths and flower beds. Following the concept of the architect Szyszko – Bohusz from 1937, the layout was based on two axes of symmetry: transverse – connecting the divinets, and longitudinal – connecting the Upper Garden from the facade of the Castle with the Lower Garden up to Wisłostrada. In the middle of the longitudinal axis, a grass indenter ended with a semicircular staircase and two fountains in the Upper Garden were reconstructed. The Lower Garden retains the character given by King Stanisław August. It is a garden open to the public – a kind of public park, but of a residential nature. The upper one, separated by diagonal paths on the slope, is closer to the residence and plays the role of the former garden intended for the residents of the residence.

The Royal Castle is one of the main tourist attractions mentioned in the first place by tourists. The project aims to strengthen the offer and brand of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and consequently the tourist offer of the entire city, which is one of the most visited cities in Poland by foreign tourists. Due to the local nature of the areas, the recipients are also residents of the city and its immediate vicinity, using the available green areas.

The project promotes the national and garden heritage in society, creates an attractive offer of spending free time, increases the tourist attractiveness of the city, voivodeship and country as well as the development of cultural creativity of the society, the development of companies and entities that support tourist traffic.

As a result of the project, additional infrastructure was made available, i.e. a resting place for walkers and cyclists, which was located outside the fence of the Lower Gardens and is available without any restrictions to everyone.

Today, the castle gardens are a dream place for relaxation, available to everyone. On the one hand, they are surrounded by the majestic body of the Castle, and on the other, opening onto a beautiful panorama of the Vistula valley, they create a charming space, which is an ideal escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. The recreated Gardens of the Royal Castle in Warsaw return to the course of history inextricably linked with the existence of the Castle, the appearance of the Old Town, and also the important panorama of the city from the side of the Vistula River and the layout of the entire Warsaw Escarpment, of which they are an element. The gardens are open to the public daily and are a perfect extension and complement to the museum’s castle interiors.