Two expert landscape architects Zdenek Novak and Stefan Yarabek will present the park and gardens of the Lednice-Valtice Estates, UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape Site, Europe's largest man-made landscape, and The Lu &Tiree Herb Garden in Valtice, unique, organic garden with 300 herb species. You will also learn about the 18th century orphans in Valtice, Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, who later became world-renown botanic artists. The past and the present connect.
PROGRAM DETAILS
Zdenek Novak (Prague), the primary author of the Lednice-Valtice UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape Site in the Czech Republic report designation, will take you on a tour of this remarkable place. Some 600 years in the making, it is the largest man-made landscape in Europe, connecting two Liechtenstein chateaux eight kilometers apart. He will present the history of that landscape, activities of the Princes of Liechtenstein in agriculture, landscaping, architecture and art in the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods.
Landscape architect Stefan Yarabek (New York) will present the unique project of the New York-based Friends of Czech Greenways, The Lu & Tiree Chmelar Herb Garden in the historic town of Valtice. He will pay homage to the late Lubomir and Tiree Chmelar, New Yorkers, and co-founders of the Prague-Vienna Greenways program in the 1990s. Together they were avid promoters of environmental and cultural preservation in Czechoslovakia after the fall of communism. They also initiated the World Monuments Fund restoration of the historic kitchen garden at Valtice chateau, the unique Lednice Conservatory, and Adaptive Reuse Design Studies of both the Lednice and Valtice Chateaux.
He will present the history of the landscape, activities of the Princes of Liechtenstein in agriculture, landscaping, architecture and art during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods. He will also discuss the legacy of the 18th century Abbot Norbert Boccius in Valtice and of two talented orphans left in his care, Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, who later became world-renowned botanic artists.
The event will be livestreamed on Zoom. RSVP through Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $5.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Zdenek Novak is the world-leading expert on the Liechtenstein Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape and historic gardens and cultural landscapes. Currently, he serves a director of the National Agriculture Museum in Prague. His previous posts include director of the Monument Preservation Institute (NPU) in South Moravia and 15 years at the Czech Ministry of Culture as vice-minister and general director. Zdenek Novak is also active in the Czech Heritage Fund. He is the author of the successful nomination of Lednice-Valtice to the UNESCO World Heritage List. He facilitated eight other successful nominations, including Gardens and Castle at Chateau Kromeriz and Tugendhat Villa in Brno. In 2017, he co-authored an extensive catalog for an exhibition The Garden of Europe at Lednice Chateau presenting the history of the Lednice Valtice Cultural Ladscape exhibition. (In Czech) The exhibition and catalog were part of a project, “Cultural Landscape as a space for social representation and relaxation of selected aristocratic families from the 17th Century to the beginning of the 20th Century". It was made possible with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture.
Stefan Yarabek is a landscape architect based in Saugerties, NY, and the Friends of Czech Greenways president. Czech and Slovak by origin, Stephan helped design and develop the Prague-Vienna Greenway project in Czechoslovakia since its conception in 1990. Among others, he contributed to creating a St.John Nepomucene trail in Telc (UNESCO site) and worked on the initial restoration plan for the town square in Valtice. His collaborative work with Zdenek Novak and landscape documentation at the 1993 and 1994 Charrettes on Conservation and Economic Enhancement of Lednice Valtice, sponsored by the World Monuments Fund, contributed to the UNESCO designation as a World Heritage Cultural Landscape. Stefan is an active member of several important Hudson River Valley heritage and preservation initiatives, such as the Hudson River Valley Greenway and Hudson River National Heritage Area. He designed landscape restoration of an early 17th-century Bohemian settlement in the Hudson River Valley.
This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, New York Chapter, and Friends of Czech Greenways in New York, with support of Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.