Strzelce Opolskie Park

Count Andrzej Maria Renard was so taken with English landscape gardens that he sent his gardener to London to study them. The result can still be seen in Strzelce Opolskie: a historic landscape park of roughly 62–65 ha (sources differ), with ponds, artificial hills and trees brought in from across the region. Work began in 1832 and went on for nearly 30 years.

A park out of a marsh

South of the castle lay wet meadows, drained in the 1820s. The gardener Schmidt, who had trained under Prince Pückler among others, came back from England in 1832 with plans and set to work; later Eduard Petzold advised on the design too. As no stream crossed the site, two long ponds were dug, joined by a canal and stocked with fish. Earth carted away by hundreds of labourers with wheelbarrows was piled into hills: Chestnut Hill by the castle, used as a cold store, and Temple Hill, once crowned by a Greek-style pavilion (today known as the hill of “three benches”).

Trees were dug up roots and all from the estate's forests, and the finest specimens came from as far as the woods around Lubliniec. According to tradition, an old lime tree from the courtyard of the monastery in Jemielnica took 16 oxen to haul. In January 1945 the Red Army burned the castle and destroyed most of the park buildings: the orangery, the pineapple house, the pheasantry and the little temple.

What to see

Ulica Parkowa divides the park into two parts:

• the small park (older) – the castle ruins, the stables where the count kept 50 horses, including thoroughbred stallions imported from England, and the site of the Renard family chapel and mausoleum, demolished in the 1960s;
• the large park (younger) – open meadows, a pond with an island where wild birds shelter, a former forester's lodge and the remains of the Ischl tower.

The real treasures are the trees: yews around 300 years old, tulip trees, plane trees, ginkgo, silver maples, and white and copper beeches. There is also an elm 37.5 m tall, cited as the tallest of its kind in Poland. The specimens are described along the “Count Renard Trail”, a nature path laid out in 2006.

Did you know?

The park has its own legend about Princess Elisabeth, daughter of Duke Albert of Strzelce, whose ghost was said to return to the castle. The count's wife, Eufemia, had a statue put up for her – and since no likeness of the princess existed, it took the form of the Roman goddess Ceres with a horn of plenty. The statue was removed in the 1960s. The park also holds the grave of Wolfgang zu Castell-Castell, the castle's last owner, who died in 1940.

Tripto tip

The park is open to all and free of charge; you can enter by the castle ruins or from ul. Parkowa, a few minutes' walk from the market square. Allow 1–1.5 hours for a relaxed walk through both parts with stops at the trail boards. The paths are flat and fine for pushchairs. Start with the small park and the stables, then cross ul. Parkowa to the meadows of the large park – that is where the idea of an English landscape comes through best.