Establishment of the Eduard Petzold Foundation

Eduard Petzold (1815-1891) was a designer and theoretician of garden art. His legacy includes approximately 174 designs of gardens and residential parks, as well as city squares and promenades, in Germany, Poland, Czechia, the Netherlands, Austria, Bulgaria and Türkiye. He learned gardening in Muskau Park under the supervision of Jacob Heinrich Rehder and Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, and then in United Kingdom, Italy, France and Switzerland. He presented his design ideas in many books and articles. His most famous work is “Landscape Gardening” [Die Landschafts-Gärtnerei], published in 1862 and reissued twice. Despite his publishing activity and significant design achievements, Eduard Petzold is still one of the least known creators of European landscape gardening.

The Foundation was established by Łukasz Przybylak and Jacek Kuśmierski to celebrate and protect the achievements of Eduard Petzold and to undertake activities in favor of monuments, garden art and landscape architecture. The choice of the village of Włodowce in the Nowa Ruda Commune as its seat is not accidental. It is located within the extensive landscape complex of the Włodzica River valley, which the southern section between the Włodowice Manor House and Sarny Castle was recomposed according to Eduard Petzold’s guidelines in the years 1880-1890. The designer also rearranged the Bożków Palace Park in 1864. The history became a contribution to establishing cooperation between ECSO and the Town and Commune of Radków and the Nowa Ruda Commune. The establishment of the Foundation is another step closer to the creation of the Eduard Petzold European Centre for Garden Art and its branches as a cultural centre with an exhibition gallery, auditorium and conference hall, library, archive and educational gardens.