BGHG organises an annual Study Day, open to all, which this year will take place on Saturday 25 March 2023.
Organized in association with the Friends of Czech Heritage speakers from both the Czech Republic and United Kingdom will explore the history and development of some of the Czech Republic’s distinctive gardens, from baroque to modern.
Speakers from the Czech Republic include landscape architect Ina Truxová, author of works on the history and development of gardens and parks, especially listed ones, and a specialist in Japanese garden architecture. Since 2002 she has been in a leading position in the National Heritage Institute – Directorate General in Prague. Her responsibilities include supervising the conservation and protection of historic parks and gardens in the Czech Republic, in particular those designated as National Monuments. She is a former president and currently the Vice-President of the European competition Entente Florale Europe (European Association for Flowers and Landscape) and a member of the Czech Landscape and Garden Society as well as a member of the executive committee of ICOMOS in the Czech Republic and ICOMOS- IFLA Cultural Landscapes International Scientific Committee. Her talk will focus on Baroque gardens in Bohemia and Moravia.
Also from the Czech Republic will be Kamila Krejčiříková, an expert in landscape design and restoration, who will talk about the restoration of the historic gardens at the connected sites of Lednice and Valtice in the south of Moravia, both possibly influenced by gardens in England, such as Stowe and Kew, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The combined site, which was owned by the Liechtenstein family for 700 years until 1945, is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Our Czech speakers will be joined by BGHG's president, Michael Symes, with a talk entitled 'From Formal to Landscape'; and Caroline Cannon-Brookes who will be explorimg two gardens designed by architects Jože Plečnik in Prague; and Mies van der Rohe in Brno. Michael Symes is an author, lecturer and garden historian who specialises in the history of 18th-century gardens in Britain and on the continent. His books include an edition of Thomas Whately’s 'Observations on Modern Gardening' and 'The English Landscape Garden in Europe'. Caroline Cannon-Brookes teaches at Oxford University Department for Continuing Education and contributes reviews to the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Co-author with her husband of ‘Baroque Churches’, she has a special interest in Central Europe and has led many tours to the Czech Republic.
The event will be held at the Institute of Education, Bloomsbury, London on Saturday 25 March from 10.00 -16.30
Tickets: This event is open to all. Tickets must be booked in advance via Eventbrite: BGHGStudyDay where you will also find the programme for the Study Day.
Booking closes at 19.00 on Wednesday, 22 March 2023.