The parks and gardens of Olomouc

Exploring the belt of green that encircles the historic core of Olomouc is a pleasant and quick way to immerse yourself in ‘the nature’ during a visit to the city. It is also full of interesting sights and affords a different perspective of many of the historic buildings high above within the city walls. The Jewish gate, St Michaels church, St Wenceslas cathedral and the Archbishops’ palace all overlook the park, and structures and memorials within the parks honour everyone from Soviet and Yugoslav soldiers to the country’s favourite poets and composers of centuries past.

The smallest of the ring of parks lays peacefully beneath St Wenceslas cathedral and the amphitheatre of the outdoor cinema. You may have found it by mistake if you weren’t following a map and walked too far while trying to find the cathedral. There are excellent views of the rear of the cathedral and palaces, and a short detour across the Morava River will bring you to the Orthodox Church with its gilded 'onion' dome, and give you a view along the river to Hradisko Monastery.

Crossing the busy avenue with the tram lines will bring you almost to the eastern end of Bezruč gardens. The Archbishops’ palace and the university administration buildings tower above you here, but within the park proper, you’ll soon come to four human-sized statues of Hercules, showing the way to the bridge across the channel to the botanic gardens. Or staying within Bezruč gardens, sandwiched between the mill channel and the remaining parts of the city walls, the winding path will eventually bring you to the city marketplace, which you’ll need to cross to get to the southern end of Smetana gardens.

The arrow straight alley of chestnut and linden trees in formal Smetana gardens then leads you past flower beds, fountains and the glasshouse section of the botanic gardens to the pedestrian bridge through the treetops to Čech gardens.

Even with its sombre monuments to poets and soldiers, Čech gardens is a favourite place for meeting friends, picnicking or tossing around a Frisbee. At the northern end past the children’s playground is the historic Litovel gate, moved here when most of the city walls were demolished and the internal combustion engine replaced the clip-clop of horseshoes on cobblestones.

Quick Tips:

Unfortunately, the eagles of the Litovel gate can’t keep watch over everyone in the park and like other city parks around the world, visitors to the park should be mindful of their surroundings and aware of the other people they are sharing the park with at any given time. I’m sure the parks of Olomouc are relatively safe by world standards, and I regularly short cut through the park after dark and am yet to experience any unpleasantness (other than the occasional incidence of people not cleaning up after their dogs). Still, it’s important to always be mindful of your surroundings and if I weren’t so big (thanks chocolate pie) and ugly, I might think about avoiding the parks after dark.

Best Way To Get Around:

All maps of the central city have the parks marked on them, and the free one provided by tourist information on the main square is more than adequate. Bezruč gardens is accessible using one of the staircases beside St Michaels church, from Purkrabska ul, from Blažejské Náměstí or from the end of Křizovského ul.

The three city parks all have well paved pedestrian and cycle trails running their entire lengths and criss-crossing their breadths. Whether you choose to walk or cycle is a matter of personal preference and the time available to you. Hotel Arigone and Poets Corner Hostel both hire bicycles to their guests for 100Kc per day, and the railway station and GM Sport also have bicycles for hire. The three parks and the Rosarium are all suitable for people in wheelchairs and the Rosarium even has a marked route that avoids steps and stairs. I think the palm house would also be ok for people in wheelchairs, but at least some parts of the smaller greenhouses would be inaccessible due to the narrowness of the pathways.

Bezruč gardens/Bezručovy Sady is a long narrow park between the mill channel (a branch of the Morava River), and the largest remaining section of the baroque city walls.

If you only have time to visit one of Olomouc’s fine parks, it should be this one. As well as the monumental fortifying walls there are several items of historical interest within the park itself, and it offers unique views of some of Olomouc’s grandest historical buildings. A wide path divided into halves for cyclists and pedestrians runs the length of the park, roughly following the right bank of the mill channel, and there are dozens of smaller pedestrian only paths that wind and loop into all corners of the eccentrically shaped park. Many of the paths are lined with benches and some lead to one of the three staircases up through the walls into the old town.

The most impressive of the staircases is the one inside the recently restored Michalskou věž/Michael’s tower between St Michael’s and the art nouveau Villa Primavesi. The tower dates from the end of the 12th century, predating the rest of the city walls by several centuries and leading you under cover to the highest point of the old town. The very uppermost floors of the tower are accessible from the garden of the Villa Primavesi, and are not really open to the public, unless you can talk your way into a quick visit by getting friendly with the gardener. By the base of the tower is the wooden monument to the namesake of the gardens, poet Petr Bezruč, who was born in Opava, but spent much of his later life at nearby Kostelec na Hané. Another staircase rises from the southern end of the park to Purkrabská Ul, and the third one opposite the footbridge leads you to a winding alley and eventually out beside the political sciences faculty on Křizovského ul. This staircase is only open from 8am to 6pm daily.

Between the staircase and the footbridge are four statues of Hercules in different poses, representing the progress of the four seasons. My favourite is ‘winter’, with Hercules wearing a thick lion skin (and skull) for warmth. The statues were moved to the location in the sixties, marking the place where Jakub’s Mill stood on the channel from at least the year 1213 (first written mention) until it was demolished in 1909.

Nearby in the park is the mausoleum, which was built in 1926 to honour Yugoslav soldiers who fell in Olomouc during the First World War. Above the walls behind the mausoleum is the Jewish gate, which once led from the Jewish quarter of the city, but was later sealed closed. The Jewish population were expelled from all royal towns in 1454, and the arrival of the Jesuits and construction of Moravia’s first university on the site left the Jewish gate as the one remaining structure from the Jewish quarter.

The Rosarium is the large outdoor section of the Olomouc botanic gardens that is visible across the mill channel from Bezručovy sady/Bezruč gardens. As its name might suggest it has a large section devoted to roses in their hundreds of colours, sizes and varieties.

Entry is off Třída 17 Listopadu from the lane between the tennis courts and the student music club, and the ticket office is a small wooden booth just inside the entry gates. The 30kc for adults and 20kc for students allows you to spend as long as you like in the gardens, until 6pm when they lock the gates. The gardens are also closed all day every Monday.

The first plants you will see upon entry are roses. Rows and rows of roses. Pink, yellow, pink with a yellow edge, red, orange, white, any colour or combination of colours you have ever heard of on a rose is represented here. There are south Americana and South African roses, roses bred in England and France and even a sturdy pink variety from Australia called Mabel! The rose beds are rectangular and are edged and divided by concrete paths which you can follow around and around, across to the small children’s playground, or all the way to the opposite end of the gardens where several ornamental ponds enliven some paved seating areas surrounded by, you guessed it, more roses.

When you’ve reached this end of the Rosarium, though, you’ll notice off to the right, a high brick wall that once formed the part of the town fortifications known as the crown fort/korunní pevnůstka. Just before and over the wall roses give way to a wide variety of plants; trees, shrubs, climbing and crawling plants all connected and contained by paved foot paths. Semi-circular arbours, pathside benches and secluded seats down by the mill channel all provide plenty of opportunity to stop and rest, and at any given time you’re likely to find quite a few people doing just that. No matter what the day or time, there always seem to be plenty of people enjoying the Rosarium, whether it is people strolling around by themselves or pushing a pram, or a chattering school group, or a group of friends making use of the petanque sets for loan from the ticket office.

At the furthest end of the Rosarium, you’ll come to the mill channel that you’ve probably seen from its other bank in Bezruč gardens. This part of the botanic gardens has another small goldfish pond, more seating areas accompanied by fruit trees, and a row of tall wooden sculptures. The sculptures are the result of the yearly symposium in which three or four sculptors are invited from around central Europe to display their skills for the citizens of Olomouc. There are good views across towards St Michaels, but unfortunately no bridge. The only exit is the entry gate by the ticket office. Lucky it’s such a pleasant walk.

Smetana Gardens/Smetanovy sady date from the year 1820 and were formerly known as Rudolfovo stromořadí/Rudolf’s alley after the Olomouc archbishop and Austrian Archduke Rudolf Jan.

A small pond lies at the southern end of the gardens and a family of swans can often be found there squabbling over the stale bread being thrown into the pond by strange two-legged creatures with short necks and no feathers. Close to the pond stands the main statue and namesake of the park; the 1925 monument to the memory of Bedřich Smetana, one of the country’s most well known composers who was born at nearby (75Km) Litomyšl, and whose composition Ma Vlast/My Land is among the most famous pieces of Czech music.

The Smetana statue stands in the middle of flower beds running the full length of the 700m alley of trees that gives the gardens such an impressive appearance. The wide alley is lined with benches along both sides and is a favourite place for the older citizens of Olomouc to meet and soak up the gentle afternoon sun while catching up on the latest gossip. The prime benches are those closest to the fountain that lies halfway along the length of the alley. Like the many other fountains of Olomouc, it is without water from October until March or April, when the danger of freezing-damage has passed. To one side of the fountain is a large wrought iron bandstand that in past years has been the site of regular Sunday afternoon brass band performances. To the other side of the fountain is the Kavárna (café) Fontana building. Unfortunately the café is closed for reconstruction until at least the summer of 2006, when hopefully it’s reopening will also see the resumption of the Sunday afternoon concerts.

The collection greenhouses of the botanic gardens are behind the café building and the area between the café and the greenhouses is decorated with several more statues, the most notable of which are the sculpture “spring” and the monument to the botanist František Polívka.

The northern end of the park is home to ugly modern buildings that make up the Flora exhibition complex where frequent cultural events and trade fairs are held. Fortunately they are quite well disguised by, if not hidden behind a thick curtain of trees and shrubs. The nearby pedestrian overpass is the best way to cross busy Wolkerova Ulice, which soon becomes the main road to Brno. There’s nothing especially appealing about the bridge itself, but it affords excellent views back along the treed alley and along Wolkerova towards the centre of town and the domes of St Michael’s. It’s also a wonderful feeling to be up among the treetops after admiring them from ground level for so long.

The western side of Smetana gardens is home to the second part of the Olomouc botanic gardens; the four separate collection greenhouses housing plants and animals from four distinct climactic zones.

The largest and most dramatic of the four greenhouses is the 1450 square metre palm house. Its sculpted doorway is the main entrance to the complex of greenhouses and the small entry fee is payable at the ticket window just inside.

The greenhouses itself is home to more than 200 species of palms and many, many other tropical plants, but what really brings it to life are the animals. If you follow the path clockwise the first animals you will come to are the brightly coloured South American macaws and Australian parrots and budgerigars. What at first seems like a pool surrounded by shiny brown stones is actually a pool surrounded by shiny brown turtles with a fire orange stripe around their eyes as if they were sporting the latest in fashion sunglasses.

When you’ve almost made a full loop and returned to the entrance, you’ll find the real stars of the palmhouse animal kingdom, the dangerous and deadly spiders, scorpions and reptiles. Several large lazy tarantulas sit around their terrariums, and the various snakes and scorpions are no more active; silently conserving their energy and curing the invention of glass. More active though are the water animals; schools of tiny piranhas scoot from one side of their tank to the other, occasionally flitting to the front of the tank to flash a toothily menacing grin. The many other species of fish in the large aquariums seem happier to keep their smiles to themselves, but the crocodiles are always happy to see you. So much so that they will try to convince you that they are lifeless fibreglass models and that you should reach down into the enclosure with your meaty, juicy, delicious hands to find out for sure. Best to leave the crocodiles to their grinning though and leave the palmhouse by the side door, where you’ll find the entrances to the other three greenhouses.

The three smaller greenhouses are arranged in a row and are identical in size; each at 330 square metres. The first replicates a hot dry climate and of the many cactuses there are always at least some that are in bloom. You shouldn’t touch any of the exhibited plants within any of the greenhouses, but of course this is especially a wise precaution in the cactus house. The next greenhouse is full of tropical and water plants, and the water is home to several species of fish. The final greenhouse is full of citrus and other fruit bearing plants, including the healthiest kiwi-fruit/Chinese gooseberry vine imaginable.

The only exit from the greenhouse complex is the doorway that you entered by, so don’t be seduced by the crocodiles and their evil smiles.

If you enter Čechovy sady/Čech gardens from the pedestrian overpass at the southern end, you’ll probably have noticed a tall monument with a bright red star at its peak. It’s a monument to the liberating soldiers of the Russian army and four of them lay buried at its base. Constructed in June of 1945, the monument was the first of its kind to be built in the Czech lands after the end of the Second World War.

Čechovy sady is of a much less formal layout than Smetanovy sady. The paths are paved, but wind and meander. There is one long path running the entire length of the gardens (from Wolkerova to Palackého) that is divided in two to also serve as a bicycle trail. The rest of the paths seem as if they’ve been placed according to where people have taken short cuts across the park, from the historic centre to the so called Vilové čtvrť/Villa Quarter. If Moravia were an independent land and Olomouc was the capital, the villa quarter is where all the foreign embassies would be; in the grand free standing houses with their richly decorated art nouveau and neo-gothic facades.

The largest clear area of the park is home to a graceful bronze statue of Božena Němcova, whose face you may recognise from the Czech 500 crown banknote. Ms Němcova was a writer and leading figure of the National Revival movement of the first half of the 19th century, which endeavoured to raise the level of Czech language and culture within the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her many fairy tales and novel ‘Grandmother’, telling of an idyllic childhood in eastern Bohemia, are among the best-known pieces of Czech literature. Being the only structure within sight, it’s also a natural landmark and meeting place. If you’re going to meet someone in the park for a hit of badminton or to play a few rounds of petanque, U Boženy (by Božena) would be the most likely place.

Sheltered by a ring of shrubs towards the northern end of the park is a children’s playground, with the old fashioned metal water-pipe swings and climbing equipment. The playground is mostly intended for children but those who are older but young of heart may also be tempted to ride the see saw or the spring-mounted horses. Among the shrubbery are also some inaccessible mostly-underground concrete structures, which I believe are (now disused) bomb shelters from the time of cold-war.

At the very northern end of the park you might leave through the Litovel gate, one of the former city gates which was moved from its original location on nearby Náměstí Hrdinů in 1898. The stone gate was restored in 2004 and its pair of Moravian eagles now again have sharp enough eyes to keep watch over those entering and leaving the park.