The Jelenia Góra Valley — the Valley of Palaces and Gardens

A valley of country houses

The Jelenia Góra Valley covers about 273 square kilometres at between 250 and 400 metres above sea level, which makes it the largest intramontane basin in the Sudetes after the Kłodzko Valley. The Karkonosze range closes it to the south, the Rudawy Janowickie to the east, the Izera mountains to the west and the Kaczawskie hills to the north. The Bóbr crosses the valley, joined near Jelenia Góra by the Łomnica and the Kamienna.

A flat floor with snow-covered peaks in view made the area fashionable in the 19th century. The Prussian royal family, led by Frederick William III, bought estates here, and aristocratic families followed, among them the Radziwiłł, Czartoryski, Schaffgotsch and Hohenzollern. Rebuilding was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Friedrich August Stüler, and the grounds were laid out by Peter Joseph Lenné — the same people then working at Potsdam and Berlin.

Goethe, Caspar David Friedrich, Frédéric Chopin, Izabela Czartoryska and John Quincy Adams all came to look. Poland's National Heritage Board counts around thirty residences within roughly a hundred square kilometres, a concentration with few parallels anywhere in Europe.

Two layers of protection

The cultural park was established on 24 October 2008 by the Karkonosze Municipalities Association under Polish heritage law. The designation covers a landscape rather than individual buildings: the palace and park ensembles in the southern, central, northern and eastern parts of the valley, together with adjoining stretches of the surrounding ranges.

Places inside the park include Bukowiec, Dąbrowica, Janowice Wielkie, Jelenia Góra with the districts of Cieplice, Czarne and Sobieszów, Karpniki, Komarno, Łomnica, Miłków, Mniszków, Mysłakowice, Radomierz, Rybnica, Wojanów, Bobrów, Wojków, Staniszów and Kowary.

A second layer arrived three years later. On 20 September 2011 the President of Poland recognised eleven of the estates as a Historic Monument under the title Palaces and Landscape Parks of the Jelenia Góra Valley: Bukowiec, the Paulinum in Jelenia Góra, the Schaffgotsch complex at Cieplice, the palace at Karpniki together with the villa known as Dębowy Dwór, Ciszyca in Kowary, Łomnica, Mysłakowice, Upper Staniszów, Wojanów and Wojanów-Bobrów. The case for the listing was built by the Valley of Palaces and Gardens Foundation, set up in 2005, which is also pursuing a UNESCO nomination.

Castles, Tyrolean houses and the rest

Ruined castles sit above the valley, several centuries older than the houses below them. Chojnik, on a steep crag above Sobieszów, is the best known; others are Bolczów in the Rudawy Janowickie, Sokolec, Niesytno and the remains of the castle at Rybnica. They form the skyline the park avenues were aimed at, and Romantic painters returned to them again and again.

Mysłakowice holds something less expected: a row of Tyrolean houses built for Protestant emigrants from the Zillertal whom Frederick William IV settled on his land here. In Kowary the cultural park also takes in the large Wysoka Łąka sanatorium complex, built when the valley's air began to be treated as a cure.

Not everything can be visited. Some of the houses are privately owned or now serve purposes that rule out casual entry, and a few are still waiting for restoration. The parks around them are usually open, so a walk is worth it even where the doors are not.

Getting there

• By train — to Jelenia Góra, from where a local line towards Karpacz and Kowary serves several villages in the valley.
• By car — the S3 expressway and then national roads via Bolków or Lwówek Śląski; a car helps inside the valley, since the houses can be ten kilometres and more apart.
• By bike — the valley floor is flat and signed routes link most of the estates, which is the pleasantest way to see it in a day.
• On foot — marked trails climb from Jelenia Góra to Chojnik and into the Rudawy Janowickie, looking down on the houses from above.

How to approach a visit

Trying to see everything in one day mostly means seeing gates. Three or four estates, with time left for the grounds, works far better: Lenné designed views rather than flowerbeds, and only walking shows how precisely the mountain peaks were set into the sightlines.

Each property sets its own access rules and its own calendar, so check them one by one before setting out. In September, during European Heritage Days, many more doors open than usual.

The valley combines easily with the mountains — a morning climb to Chojnik or Śnieżka, an afternoon among the houses and gardens.

How to get there and practical info

Location

Jelenia Góra Valley, Lower Silesian Voivodeship; the communes of Mysłakowice, Podgórzyn and Janowice Wielkie plus Jelenia Góra and Kowary

Cultural park

established on 24 October 2008 by the Karkonosze Municipalities Association

Historic Monument

since 20 September 2011, as Palaces and Landscape Parks of the Jelenia Góra Valley

Estates in the listing

eleven palace and park ensembles

The valley

about 273 km², 250 to 400 metres above sea level

Designers

gardens by Peter Joseph Lenné, buildings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Friedrich August Stüler among others

Time needed

two days at least for a sensible selection

Current opening hours and tickets

site of the Valley of Palaces and Gardens Foundation

When to go