Building the Ideal Landscape in a Naturally Landscaped Park and its Subsequent Transformation, According to the Example of the Park at Zahrádky u České Lípy

Landscape parks are an important part of cultural heritage and create characteristic features of a cultural landscape. The paper is divided to two parts. First, the ideal landscape park is presented as it was created in the works of theorists, philosophers, and gardeners in the 18th and 19th centuries. The ideal landscape park should be intentionally irregular and it should communicate with the surrounding landscape. The landscape parks were furnished with several follies and both domestic and introduced plants were cultivated.
The second part is focused on the model area, the park at Zahrádky near Česká Lípa in Northern Bohemia. The park at Zahrádky is an example of a typical Bohemian landscape park founded at the beginning of the 19th century in place of the previous Baroque garden created by the Kounic family. In the first half of the 19th century, the park was furnished with several small buildings, orangeries and pavilions. New alleys and a pond with an island were created. During the second half of the 19th century, landscape design activities spread to the surrounding landscape. On the other hand, the park itself was rebuilt more generously and wide open meadows and groves were the key stones of the composition of the park. Three main parts could be distinguished: the manor park, the old game park, and the yard.
The history and composition of the park at Zahrádky was studied using old prints and archive files mainly stored in the State Regional Archive at Litoměřice, the Česká Lípa Estate (Velkostatek Česká Lípa ) and the Kounic Family Archive (Rodinný archiv Kouniců) in Česká Lípa.