ROGALIN
Rogalin is a village on the Warta river, located ca. 20 km south of Poznań.
The French-styled garden was being created in Rogalin in the 1770s, simultaneously with the palace – as they were to form a coherent whole. Hence, the garden salon, meant as a forward extension of a salon situated on the ground floor, was accessible through the patio. The garden salon was closed with a viewing mound, with two pairs of hornbeam espaliers planted along its sides. Adjacent directly to the palace, this is the most decorative fragment of the garden. Lanes radiate from the centrally located flowerbed. The garden salon is adorned by stone rococo sculptures.
Behind the French garden spreads an English-styled garden, founded at a former oak-wood place. Its scheduled tending was commenced in the early 19th century. It was then that an alley looped along the park was built; it is set past the monument oaks of Lech, Czech and Rus (named after the legendary eponymous founders of Poland, Bohemia and Ruthenia). Also the natural glades were set in order and a few vantage points marked out. This is how an enormous landscape complex, maintained in a romantic convention, was founded.
Not limited by any clearly set frontier, the English park unnoticeably turns into marshy meadows on the Warta, famous as they are for Europe’s largest cluster of old oaks – some of which being up to 600 years old – being a highlight of the Rogalin Landscape Park. Today’s circumferences of some of those monument oaks are up to 10 m. The most famous among them are those named Lech, Czech and Rus (circumferences: 930 cm, 810 cm and 670 cm, respectively), all to be met at the palace park. Legend has it that they stand there to commemorate the parting of the three brothers who once set out from there to three cardinal directions to eventually found what was to become Poland, Bohemia and Russia. One of the most interesting oaks is Edward (650 cm), growing on the Warta valley’s slope.
