Łazienki Park
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Łazienki Park (Polish: Park Łazienkowski) is the largest park in Warsaw, occupying 80 hectares of the city center. The park lies in Warsaw's Śródmieście (Downtown), on Aleje Ujazdowskie, on the "Royal Route" linking the Royal Castle with Wilanów, in the south. To the north, on the other side of Agrikola Street, the park borders Ujazdów Castle.
Łazienki Park was established in the 17th century by Tylman van Gameren, in the baroque style, for Stanisław Lubomirski. It took its name ("Baths Park") from a bathing pavilion that was located there. In 1764 the gardens were acquired, after his election as King of Poland, by Stanisław August Poniatowski.
The now classicist-style gardens became Stanisław August's life work. The park was designed by Dominik Merlini, Johann Christian Kamsetzer and landscape gardener Jan Christian Schuch. The park's principal buildings are clustered around or near the Łazienki Lake and Łazienki River. Stanisław August's palace, placed on the lake, is designed as a "Palace on the Water."
Most of the park's buildings burned during and after the Warsaw Uprising (1944), amid fighting among German, Polish and Soviet forces. The structures nevertheless were relatively well-preserved, compared to Warsaw's Old Town, and the park complex's reconstruction was completed within a few years after war's end.
[edit] Palace on the Water
The "Palace on the Water" (Polish: Pałac na Wodzie or Pałac Łazienkowski), also called the "Palace on the Isle", was established in the 17th century by Tylman van Gameren for Stanislaus Lubomirski. From 1772 to 1793 Dominik Merlini altered the building for Stanislaus August Poniatowski, who made it his residence. The bath institution was formed in Chinese style. The park, now a beautiful medley of architectural styles, was then graced with reliefs and painted Dutch tiles. Its furniture and paintings belong to the Classicist style. The appearance is dominated by an "Attika", carried by columns, statues of mythological figures. The castle by the park is on an artificial island on the Łazienki lake, and is connected by two arcade bridges to the rest of the park. The long Łazienki lake is divided by the palace in two parts, into a smaller northern lake and a bigger southern lake. On the ground floor of the Castle is the so-called "Bacchus-room", the royal baths, the ballroom, the portrait cabinet, the Salomonsaal, the rotunda with the figures of the Polish kings, the lower picture gallery which contains minor works by Rubens and Rembrandt, and the castle chapel. Also on the ground floor is the dining room in which the famous "Thursday meetings" took place, to which king Stanisław August Poniatowski invited important Freemasons. On the first floor are the royal apartments, the upper picture gallery, the balcony room, the king's cabinet, the royal bedchambers, the cloakroom, and the officer's room. The Palace on the Water was damaged by Polish and German forces during the Warsaw Uprising, and was rebuilt after the Second World War.
[edit] Temple of Diana
In 1822, Jakub Kubicki erected a classicist temple to the goddess Diana. Also called the "Temple of the Sybil," it stands in the northwest part of the southern Łazienki lake. The building is massive, but built of wood and decorated inside with murals of flower and fruit motifs.
[edit] Egyptian Temple
An Egyptian temple was also built in 1822 by Jakub Kubicki, in the southwest part of the southern Łazienki lake. It was placed next to the fortress built by Stanisław Lubomirski, which protected Warsaw south of that point. In 1771 a bridge was built to it. During the Warsaw Uprising, only the northern part of the temple survived; the southern part has never been rebuilt.
[edit] See also
[edit] Gallery
 Palace in summer, with Roman theater in foreground (19th-century painting). |
 Łazienki Park lake. |
 Equestrian statue of King Jan III Sobieski, victor at Battle of Vienna (1683), trampling a vanquished Turk. |
 Palace on the lake. |
 18th-century orangery. |
 Neo-Romantic monument to Fryderyk Chopin. |
 Theater on the water. |
 Water tower. |
 Palace on the lake (front). |
 Palace on the lake (rear). |
 Palace on the lake (front, from an angle). |
 Open-air theatre. |
 Peacocks, one of the few kinds of animals inhabiting the park. |
 An alley in the park. |
 Chopin monument at night |
