The Château Park is part of the complex of the Ostrov Château and the Palace of Princes. It extends along both banks of the Jáchymov Brook and invites one to take pleasant walks and to relax especially in the summer season. The Baroque Ostrov Summer Residence is situated in the centre of the park – now a branch of the Karlovy Vary Art Gallery with exhibitions of primarily modern art and an exhibit of European porcelain.
In the past, the erstwhile château gardens were a breath-taking masterpiece, which the Carlsbad physician Michael Raphael Schmutzer described as the “Eighth Wonder of the World” in his 1663 work “De Nymphis Carolobadensibus”.
Feed and see squirrels in the Château Park in Ostrov
History
The château gardens were established in 1625 by Julius Henry, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, the owner of the Ostrov domain. Its design combined elements of the Renaissance, Mannerism, and Early Baroque Italian gardens with abundant use of the element of water in the form of fountains and surfaces of water with copious statue decorations. Work on embellishments to the château gardens continued in the years of 1665 – 1689, under the estate owner Julius Francis, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg according to the Baroque concepts of representative château gardens. The Baroque construction of the garden culminated in the years 1690 – 1715, when the owner of the Ostrov estate was Ludwig Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden. This is one of the first realisations of the French garden designs of the Le Nôtre school in Bohemia. The last stage of adjustments made to the garden occurred at the end of the 18th century when the formal garden was gradually transformed into a natural landscape park. Most of the buildings in the park were removed, the water elements were abandoned, and the artistic decorations were sold or destroyed. Today, the park has maintained the approximate appearance of the second half of the 19th century.
The Present
If one slightly exaggerates, one can dub the current state of the Château Park as the fifth stage of alterations. In the landscape section of the park, dead trees were removed, and the area surrounding the Summer Residence is approximate to the original appearance of the château gardens. In the area by the southern façade of the Palace of Princes, replicas of two original pools were created.
