s e j n b o h e m i ae r o s a
Stromořadí lip, které s obdivem popisuje Bohuslav Balbín (Miscellanea Historica Regni Bohemiae 1, Praha 1679), je součástí skutečně mimořádné realizace, založené v krajině mezi Jičínem a Valdicemi a spojované se jménem Albrechta z Valdštejna.
V čem spočívá její jedinečnost? Především jde o první raně barokní krajinnou kompozici takového rozsahu v Čechách. Albrecht z Valdštejna (1583-1634) zde za pomoci svých architektů Andrey Spezzy (od roku 1625) a Niccola Sebregondiho (od roku 1629) inicioval stavbu osově založené zahrady s oborou, pohledově i funkčně svázanou s budovou kolem čestného dvora a s lodžií - salou terrenou, „přízemní síní", kde se šlechtická společnost měla bavit, naslouchat hudbě a také vizuálně komunikovat s okolím. Druhou osu, kolmou na osu první, představovalo právě lipové stromořadí, spojující vévodské město Jičín, lodžii a Libosad (tak byla zahrada později nazvána) s kartuziánským klášterem ve Valdicích, určeným za místo Valdštejnova posledního odpočinku. Tím se také po jeho zavraždění v Chebu roku 1634 stal. Půdorysná osnova celého komplexu je natolik výrazná, že dnes, kdy se celý areál jakoby navrací zpět přírodě, je jasně patrná velkorysá koncepce. Mimo vlastní lodžii a zbytky zděných ohrad s obdélnými výklenky je patrné také obvodové zdivo a klenební pasy groty, zděné terasy při dvou zrcadlově založených rybnících, jež navazovaly na labyrinty ze stříhaných dřevin, sypaná hráz velkého osového rybníka, návrší rondelu a stopy dalších pohledových os vroubených lipami či pyramidálními duby a spojených s vodními plochami. Například průhled hrází rybníka u myslivny, orientovaný přesně k vrcholu výrazného kopce Zebína, je příkladem práce architektů, těžících ještě z manýristických idejí propojenosti člověka a přírody.
Jako mnohé italské zahrady z tohoto období má i areál valdštejnské komponované krajiny své jedinečné stavebněhistorické a krajinně-morfologické souvislosti a osud. Genius loci okolí Jičína je dán především samotným utvářením jičínské kotliny, rámované na jihu velišským hřbetem a na severu hřebenem Tábora s tušením Krkonoš. Mělká mísa, přecházející na západě ještě do labyrintů Prachovských skal, je také místem žilnatiny prameništ řeky Cidliny a dalších, vnitřně soustředěných center a orientačních bodů, jimiž jsou vrchy Zebín, Železný nebo Sv. Anna. Bylo to ideální místo, přitažlivé pro člověka od neolitu až k období raného středověku, zde lze rozpoznat již velmi pokročilý stupeň humanizace krajiny.
Samotný valdštejnský komplex komponované krajiny, tedy Libosad s lodžií a lípami, vyrůstá na místě tzv. Valdického háje a rybniční soustavy Šibeníku, doložené již počátkem 15. století. Stejně tak Valdštejnovou smrtí roku 1634 tvarování komplexu nekončí. Manýristická osnova míst jasných a míst s tajemstvím prorůstá krajinou dál liniemi a blouděním. Na přelomu 17. a 18. století vyrůstá po obvodu jičínské kotliny řada poutních kaplí, korunujících vrcholy kopců nebo uzavírajících hrdla údolí s prameny. Vznikají tak další dominanty tíhnoucí ke světlu či ke zdrojům životadárných sil.
Na těchto proměnách jičínské kotliny se podílejí rovněž další stavebníci a po Valdštejnovi se tu zapsali další šlechtické rody - zejména Šlikové, Morzinové, ale později i Rohanové. V podstatě až podnes tak vznikají a postupně se i vytrácejí mnohovrstevnaté vazby konceptu Valdštejnovy komponované krajiny mezi Jičínem a Valdicemi. Skutečnost, že koncept nebyl ve své době dokončen, lze označit za štěstí, protože jen tak bylo možné v dalších obdobích plodně rozvinout všechny aspekty, jež nabízely ideje manýrismu i místo samo.
V současné době je celý areál velmi originální drúzou nesoucí výrazné stopy prehistoricky až raně historicky humanizované krajiny, stopy manýristické a raně barokní koncepce zahrad italského typu, stopy středoevropského vrcholně barokního způsobu jedinečné práce s krajinou, stopy historismu konce 18. a počátku 19. století a konečně stopy návratu a tendence k obnovování původních typů porostu, flóry a fauny. Všechny tyto složky jsou cenné, nejcennější je však jejich vzájemná souvztažnost.
Miloš Šejn
Lodžie v pohledu od vrchu
Zebína
Pohled na Jičín z vrchu Zebína
Průhled lipovou alejí, v pozadí vrch Zebín
Valdštejnova lodžie
Země Koruny České, Jičín / Brána do Českého ráje, Orbis 1996, s.14-15
Wallenstein Loggia and the Baroque Composition of Landscape around Jičín
“…perhaps all Czech gardens were surpassed by two gardens of Albrecht of Walenstein: That in Prague and that in Jičín. From Jičín, a wide four-line linden tree promenade leads to the duke’s garden. It is a piece of work so refined it is not possible to find any that compare in the whole of Bohemia, nor even in neighbouring countries. More than 700 linden trees, planted in diagonals, open in four lines along a triple road: one in the middle, suitable for horses and carts, and two smaller roads on both sides. The trees are all of the same age, the crown shapes are the same as well, underneath them is grass and flowers; in one word, it is the Hesiodic road of delight from which, after deep consideration, the young Prodic’s Hercules departed.”
(Bohuslav Balbín: Miscellanea Historica Regni Bohemiae, Book I, 1679)
The linden tree promenade, spoken of in connection with Albrecht of Wallenstein (1583–1634; known as Valdštejn in Czech) and described with such admiration by Bohuslav Balbín, is a part of a unique project carried out in the landscape of Český ráj (The Bohemian Paradise) between Jičín and Valdice. Justifiably enough, an effort to proclaim the whole area a cultural preserve has now arisen.
What is so unique about this project? Most importantly, it is the first early Baroque or late Manneristic composition of landscape of such a size in Bohemia. When Albrecht of Wallenstein chose Jičín as the seat of his Frýdlant county he, with the help of his architects Andrea Spezza (from 1625) and Nicolo Sebregondi (from 1629), laid the foundations of a main-axis garden with a game reserve, relating both in perspective and function to the adjacent court and the Loggia or salla terena. Here the gentry found a place to talk, listen to music and to visually communicate with their immediate surroundings.
The second axis line, perpendicular to the first line, is formed by the linden tree promenade. It links the county seat Jičín, the loggia and Libosad (this name was later adopted for the garden) with the Carthusian monastery in Valdice which was later set to be the grand duke’s eternal rest place. This second axis line, although realised visually, was designed as well to imply power and ideology.
After Wallenstein’s assassination in Cheb in 1634 all building activities ceased. However the fragment of the original architectural idea, landscape formation and the ground plan already created was so distinctive that even now, at the time of people’s return to the nature, its magnificent features are clearly recognisable. Besides the building of loggia and remains of boundary walls with oblong niches, there is peripheral walling and straight arches of the grotto, and masoned terraces near two symmetrised ponds which were, according to the original plan, to have been adjacent to the labyrinths of pruned trees. Next is an earthen dam of a large main-axis pond, a roundel hillock, and there are indications of other perspective axis lines, marked by linden trees or pyramid oak trees and connected with secondary water surfaces. Such an example is the dam line of the pond near the gamekeeper’s lodge, whose perspective aligns exactly with the top of Zebín, one of the landmarks of the area. It is an example of the art of architects capitalising on the Manneristic ideas of man’s accord with nature.
Like many Italian gardens of that period, the Wallenstein landscape composition has many unique contexts in terms of architectural styles and the landscape’s morphology, and a unique history. The genius loci around Jičín is determined by the formation of the Jičín basin, framed by the Velíš ridge to the south and by the Tábor crest to the north with the notion of the Krkonoše mountains. The shallow basin, changing into the labyrinths of the Prachov sandstone rocks in the west, is a spring area for the Cidlina river and an area of power-bearing centres with the landmark peaks of Veliš, Kumburk, Zebín, Železný or Sv. Anna. The Jičín basin has been attracting man since Neolithic times, and it is assumed that in the early mediaeval period the landscape had been cultivated to a considerable extent. The Wallenstein conception of the landscape composition itself, i.e. the Libosad with Obora and the loggia with the linden tree promenade, is a masterpiece development of the older area of the Valdice grove and the pond valley of Šibeník, which date back to the beginning of the XV century.
However, the death of Wallenstein did not bring to an end the forming of landscape. A Manneristic outline of overt as well as covert places frames the landscape’s transformation, perceivable to man as lines and labyrinths. The end of XVII century was the time when many pilgrimage places were created, and pilgrimage chapels were built to decorate hill tops or valley springs around the Jičín basin. They became the new dominating landmarks, featuring the inner light or life giving forces. Places denoting seclusion, such as natural caves and gorges, were also given specific marking. A fragment of an artificial cave in the garden adjacent to the Loggia was so marked as early as 1692. The Manneristic cave as a gateway to the nether world becomes a refuge for the contemplation of death, a hermitage lying in the middle of a ruin preserved on purpose.
Other landlords have also participated in the shaping of the landscape in the Jičín basin, namely the Schliks, the Morzins or later the Rohans. New artist architects appeared, such as Jean Baptiste Mathey, Jan Blažej Santini-Aichl and Anselmo Martino Lurago.
At present the landscape around Jičín is a unique fusion with recognisable features of prehistoric or early historic cultivation, of Manneristic and early Baroque concepts of Italianate gardens, of the irreproducible manner of landscape architecture as it emerged in the late period of Central European Baroque, of the historicism of the end of XVIII and beginning of XIX centuries, and finally, of the place’s return to itself, together with the regrowth of the original types of flora and fauna.
Each of these components has some value; the most valuable, however, is their relationship. To acquire an understanding of the relationships inside the composed landscape with the Wallenstein Loggia is in no way easy. It will require the cooperation of many experts in large-scale research, and the most crucial point will be to set priorities for the possible renovation. It is the only way of saving and discovering the extraordinary value of this monument as the cultural heritage for the generations to come.
Miloš Šejn
Valdice, Libosad, Wallenstein Loggia. 1630–34, projected before 1630, Nicolo Sebregondi
In the direction of Jičín, linked with the town by a beautiful linden tree promenade, is LIBOSAD with the adjacent game reserve; on the longitudinal axis, Wallenstein Loggia is situated with the court at the back; – the whole complex, originally early Baroque style, was projected before 1630 by Nicolo Sebregondi and built according to his plans in 1630–34; Classicist adaptation after 1768 (mansard roof); mock-up vaulting of the arcades from 1813; then deserted and adapted in XIX century. – LOGGIA: two-floor building with two rooms in the back section through both floors; a high loggia in the front section, opening to the adjacent park with three arcades with pillars at the front and one arcade on each side; covered with mansard roof. In front of the loggia are two full-width open flights of stairs. – Behind the loggia, to the north, is a court of welcome, surrounded by a C-shaped one-storey building with two groined-vaulting underpasses, both with segment-encased bossed portals, and with bossed pilasters and segmental gables.
The Art Monuments of Bohemia, 1982.
Diversity was the main attraction of that land; amorous charm and earnest glorification amalgamated in it as in the face of the young lad who was now watching it gloomily. Behind him, toward midnight and on the left towards the East lay, in a distant half-circle, the mountains of Krkonoše, and dark blue shadows alternated with the red glow of the early morning sun over the dignite mountain tops. On his right hand the castles topping the dark hills of Kumburk and Bradlec, rising from darksome valleys, cast their shadows; and behind and high over them stood the beautiful hill of Tábor. From the deep lowland it rose slowly to its magnificent summit, and on its far stretched crest, from its foot up to half its height, green pastures changed in turns with the golden colour of the maturing corn in long fields; but from there on up, the fields were edged by dark woods. Here and there yards or buildings flashed in the morning glow, seated either in the fertile plain or in the shadows of dark-green forests. On the upper and steeper part of the mountain, in the blue mist, were dense young forests, and on the mountain’s face grey rocks showed in the dark brushwood; and on the very summit a white church was hard to recognise in the red sky’s horizon, just as a white rock in a blood-red sea. Just in front of him, on the midday side, was a far-reaching plain, with stretches of fertile fields and meadows in bloom; on its horizon stood the hill of Veliš, decorated with the walls of an ancient castle, and somewhat closer rose the bare hill of Zebín. Close round and about was this delightful land which the lad’s saddened eyes were now watching.
Karel Hynek Mácha, Valdice, 1836
In the first third of 17th century, the duke Albrecht of Wallenstein (known in Czech as “Valdštejn”) chose Jičín to be his residence and head town of his county. For Jičín, this was the beginning of massive building activities conducted by three important Italian architects: G. Pieroni, A. Spezza and N. Sebregondi. The start of 17th century, or the Early Baroque, brought architecture that spontaneously reflected nature. The beauty and varieties of the landscape around Jičín contributed to the creation of the first large-scale architectural composition of landscape in Bohemia. – In 1936 the borough of Jičín became the owner of the most important monuments of the Wallenstein period and began repair work, which in the 40’s ceased and was never resumed. Since 1996 the project of renovating the Wallenstein Loggia with the attached park has been under way, another part – the game reserve – was returned to its lawful owners.