PLOSKOVICE A ZÁKUPY. ZAHRADY ANNY MARIE FRANTIŠKY S VŮNÍ ANANASU
PLOSKOVICE AND ZÁKUPY: THE GARDENS OF ANNA MARIA FRANCISCKA WITH THE SCENT OF PINEAPPLES

Summary/Abstract: This paper is focused primarily on Baroque gardens in Ploskovice and Zákupy that were administered and developed by Grand Duchess Anna Maria Franciscka of Tuscany, wife of Gian Gaston de Medici, in the first half of the 18th century. The paper comes up with the attribution of the Ploskovice garden depiction to the court painter Jindřich František Kraus. Apart from this, it attributes the foundation and building of Ploskovice garden to the court gardener Johann Wenzel Paul. For the first time, botanical lists from the above mentioned gardens are published here and, based on these lists, the paper pays attention to the trend of pineapples as a royal fruit of the time that as early as in the 1730s was present in the grand duchess’s garden. The new archival discoveries and their contextualisation on the European level shift the importance of both gardens and bring a much clearer view of their botanical composition. There is also an assumption that there must have been large greenhouses in the area of the Zákupy residence that can be in a certain way compared to art galleries for the local botanical collections. Also new findings on cultivation of exotic plants and various autochthonous species of fruit trees demonstrate a high cultural level of the Grand Duchess’ court, which places it rightfully among the prominent European aristocracy.

• Details
• Contents