The Kamieniec Palace places a membership plaque of the European Route of Historic Gardens

The owners of a charming residence in Kamieniec (region: Lower Silesia / Kłodzko County, Poland), a married couple Katarzyna and Wojciech Hutny, placed an ERHG membership plate. The plaque was placed at the entrance to the garden. The garden underwent two years of reconstruction work in 2014.

Landscape garden 

The small palace garden evolved from a decorative and utilitarian form of 1780 through at least two forms of landscape garden in the 19th century. The garden underwent its greatest transformation in the spirit of the so-called Prussian garden art between 1883 and 1890. The founders of the rearrangement at that time were the couple Count Joachim and Andrea Margot von Seherr-Thoss. Andrea Margot personally took care of the garden, which was arranged with a unique sense of style and trends characteristic of the period. The winding alleys comprised two main garden interiors separated from each other by a bush and perennial garden (DE: Staudengarten) which was popularised in the Kingdom of Prussia at the end of the 1880s. At the edge of the garden there was a late 18th century pavilion called the tea house.

It was not only one of the most important points of the whole decorative programme of the garden of Kamieniec, but also a vantage point from which one could see the garden with the palace in the background and the boundless landscape of the surrounding fields, meadows and mountain massifs. It was from the interior of this pavilion that Joachim and Andrea Margot could see the mountain massif of Śnieżnik covered by snow for a longer part of the year.

The end of the Second World War and a complete change of the geopolitical situation in Central and Eastern Europe opened a new chapter in the history of the Kamieniec property. The nationalised estate became the property of the state and the palace and the accompanying residential buildings started to function as multi-family dwellings. The palace garden was completely unattended. As a result of natural disasters, but also as a result of the activities of the local community, it almost ceased to exist within only 20 years.

Renovation

In 2009 Katarzyna and Wojciech Hutny began a long-term renovation of the palace and the surviving farm buildings. In 2013 they also started work on drawing up conservation documentation for the garden. Drawn up by garden heritage specialist Łukasz Przybylak, the project was implemented in autumn 2013. Two years later, both the palace and the garden were opened to public use. The palace and the former barn and stables now serve as a famous in Poland hotel and restaurant.

The palace garden has been recreated on the basis of archival photos given to the current owners by the living descendants of the pre-war owners of the estate. Many of the details of the garden composition, such as the course of the garden paths, have also been reconstructed on the basis of relics preserved underground.

The garden covers an area of approx. 1.4 hectares. Apart from the historical ornamental and walking part, there are two new arranged parts, including a flower meadow and a kitchen garden with a greenhouse and a picturesque ruin of a gardener's house from the turn of the 18th and 19th century. The kitchen garden was opened on 24.04.2022 after several months of construction and conservation work.

The restoration and maintenance work in the garden is supervised by Łukasz Przybylak who also represent the garden in the ERHG. The gardener tending the site on a daily basis is Maryla Łagojda, who is supported in part by Grzegorz Barczyk.

More information about the Palace: palackamieniec.pl/en