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The year 1774 saw the first Polish treatise on English gardening by August Moszyński. From
his dedication to Stanislas Augustus, dated from January 17th, 1774, it can be believed that
this treatise was written by Moszyński with Łazienki in mind, when, after the 1772
reconstruction of the Ujazdów Castle had been stopped, the King initiated work towards
turning the Ujazdów hunting grounds called Zwierzyniec into his summer residence. The
influence of this treatise on the development of decorative gardening in Poland was decisive.
The author doubtless intended it for publication and therefore he treated it not only as a token
homage to the King and an encouragement for new gardening design principles to be used at
Łazienki. In his introduction, he expressed his conviction that his views on English gardening
might bring about some improvement in this field in Poland.
Moszyński’s treatise, which was based on the 1771 French edition of the very popular English
book by Thomas Whately on landscape gardens published a year before, is of importance for
us not only because it was the first Polish treatise on landscape parks, but also because it was
an adaptation of the English text to Polish needs, and thus established a pattern for the Polish
version of the English garden. Thus, Moszyński: “ ... those who want to give grace to a garden
by arranging it in the English taste in the natural style, should seek an intermediate kind,
which to some extent could connect the ideas of the English, which are unwarrantedly
evaluated as very definite in their irregularity, with the limitations which custom, or
necessity, has introduced into our gardens”.
Moszyński’s treatise began with a reference to specific Polish garden designs. Thus, hewrote
that the Warsaw region was not the most suitable for landscape parks to be established, sińce
it was fiat and monotonous. Only the owners of the properties situated on the Vistula
escarpment had at their disposal areas for the establishment of gardens in the English style. In
view of this, and also because on the Warsaw escarpment there were numerous pałace
residences, Moszyński worked out a typical design for an area, part of which was on an
elevation and the remaining part below, and to which it was easy to bring streams.
The King did not respond to the ideas of Moszyński’s treatise, but it seems that he was

Sierniki, draft design of the pałace of K. Radolińska, J.Ch. Kamsetzer, 1786-88


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