Průhonice park, - Central Bohemia Region

The chateau Park at the Pruhonice Chateau is one of the most significant and beautiuful parks in the Czech Republic. The park was founded by the Pruhonice Chateau owner Count Arnost Emanuel Silva-Tarouca in 1885. He then worked on it until his death in 1936 although he had sold the whole Pruhonice estate to the state in 1927. With an amazing artistic and esthetic touch he transformed the monotonous agricultural landscape into a park amounting (representing) for a masterful work of European significance. The Count Silva-Tarouca used the broken relief of the stream Botic valley as well as its lakes and original vegetation. To those he added many exotic plants and trees species. Also, a number of view-througs, lookouts and open-space meadows were created. On the rocky cluster above the Botic stream he built a large Alpine rockery. Besides the artistic-historical significance the park is also valued for its great collection of various plant species. There is also a great cone collection as part of the park. In total, the Pruhonice Park is 250 ha large with 23 km of paths.