KROMERIZ: A visit to the Flower Garden in the eastern Czech city of Kromeriz is like travelling 300 years back in time.

With its original geometrical layout and high topiary walls, it’s a rare example of an early baroque garden style. And it’s now reclaiming the unique features it had when it was completed in 1675, including fountains, sculptures inspired by Greek and Roman mythology, a Dutch bulb garden, citrus trees, fishponds and a rabbit hill.

The Flower Garden was created near an archbishop’s chateau, but it proved so difficult and expensive to maintain that it was neglected. Ironically, that neglect allowed it to survive for centuries mostly unchanged, though some features disappeared or suffered damage over time.

Restoration efforts began in the 1950s, and the Flower Garden was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1998 together with the chateau and another garden on its grounds.

The European Union is now funding restoration of about a third of the Flower Garden, using copper engravings from 1691 as a guide for what it once looked like.

“Here, time has stopped, somehow,” said Lenka Kresadlova from the National Heritage Institute.

“As it served as a kitchen garden, most of its artistic features, including the topiary, were preserved. It was a fortunate coincidence that allowed this garden to be preserved in its original authentic shape, when all other gardens created in the era ceased to exist. That’s why we are so unique.”

Kresadlova said the project’s goal is to give the visitors a chance to relive the atmosphere.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014