Vrtba Garden

The Vrtba Garden (Czech: Vrtbovská zahrada) in Prague is one of several fine High Baroque gardens in the Czech capital. Like three other Baroque gardens (the Vratislav, Schönborn and Lobkowicz palace gardens) the Vrtba Garden is situated on the slope of Petřín Hill in the Malá Strana section of the city. In the midst of an expansive moment in Prague's history during the 1710s and 1720s, the garden was laid out by František Maxmilián Kaňka, who was renovating the Vrtba palace for Jan Josef, Count of Vrtba. Though the palace has undergone extensive reconstructions in the succeeding centuries, the garden retained its Baroque style and the original statuary and sculptural decor by Matyáš Bernard Braun. In addition, the fresco interiors of the Sala Terrena that links palace and gardem, executed by Václav Vavřinec Reiner have also survived. Facing the Sala Terrena across a central pool is a matching former aviary.

Between 1990 and 1998 the Vrtba garden underwent structural conservation and extensive replanting and was reopened for public in June 1998.

The formal clipped garden in the French taste laid out in clipped scrolling asymmetrical...