Sometimes it feels that you can hardly turn a corner in Cracow without stumbling across a walled garden or an arcaded courtyard. Sadly though, most of the gardens are inaccessible, as invariably they belong to one of the myriad religious orders that have made their home here over the centuries. The glimpse of branches laden with blossom behind some crumbling old wall is tantalizingly beautiful. However, whilst you might have just climbed over the wall when you were a child (and claimed that you had somehow got lost and were looking for your mother) you can't really pull off the same blag as an adult member of the human race (you might say that your hat had been blown off by a freak gust of wind, and that you were simply desperate to retrieve it, but somehow I feel that the goodly monks would not believe you).
In this light, the reopening of the Mehoffer garden is something of a treat for lovers of trees, flowers and all things green and wholesome. This garden, which belonged to one of Cracow's great artists, Jozef Mehoffer (1869-1946) has just been reborn after many years of neglect. Although most of the plants and trees have had to be replanted and will take some time to mature, the project has already greatly enhanced the experience of the Mehoffer Museum itself, and you can walk straight into the garden from the main house.
By the time that Mehoffer moved into this house in 1930 (the building is just short of being a mansion), he was one of the most successful artists in the country and on friendly terms with many of the great and the good. He had won prizes for stained glass competitions in France, designed windows for both Freiburg cathedral in Germany and Wawel cathedral in Poland, and he was Professor of Painting at Cracow's Academy of Fine Arts. His skills as a painter were much in demand.
After the war, the house was donated to the nation by Mehoffer's son, and it remains amongst the most enchanting museums in the city. The sense of the artist himself is palpable at every turn here, and the place brims with both his personal effects as well as his paintings themselves. Whilst you're wandering about the house, keep an eye out for two paintings of the garden (the best of the two is in the south-facing bedroom). It was largely from these dreamy canvases that the garden was reconstructed, and if you ever saw the place before reconstruction (when it was a profoundly miserable and overgrown mess) you will hardly believe your eyes.
Several large trees that Mehoffer would have known have survived the passage of time, but the rest has had to be recreated from scratch. Lawns have been laid out, with flowerbeds and shrubs echoing the garden as it was in its pre-war form. It will certainly be interesting to watch the garden mature over the next few years, and apart from some rather military looking gravel in one section of the garden, it looks full of promise - leading broadsheet Gazeta Wyborcza has already awarded the garden 'Best Cracovian Architectural Project of the Year' (the worst went to a certain newly built hotel on the Vistula - the Sheraton) and the garden is certainly a very pleasant place. Mehoffer's magical painting 'Strange Garden' remains one of the best-loved paintings from Poland's Art Nouveau epoch, and in time, this newly reopened garden may well gain its own share of loyal devotees, whilst also providing a hideaway for young lovers, and (one hopes) some eccentric artists.
The Jozef Mehoffer Garden can be visited as part of the Mehoffer Museum, a branch of the National Museum of Cracow, ul. Krupnicza 26.
Prices for a visit (including the museum) are 6 zl (4 zl for Students)
|