Pitted against some of the country’s best-known historic treasures, natural wonders and national landmarks, the Hortulus Spectabilis gardens have been named by National Geographic Polska as one of the ‘Miracles of Poland’.
Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
Pitted against some of the country’s best-known historic treasures, natural wonders and national landmarks, a magical park opened less than ten-years ago is celebrating after being named by National Geographic Polska as one of the ‘Miracles of Poland’.
Home to the largest hornbeam maze in the world, the Hortulus Spectabilis Gardens first opened to the public in June of 2014.Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
Home to the largest hornbeam maze in the world, the Hortulus Spectabilis Gardens first opened to the public in June of 2014, eleven years after the owners, a pair of gardeners, first started arranging a unique set of gardens to showcase their passion.
Located in Dobrzyca, a small village found between Koszalin and Kołobrzeg, the land was originally acquired in 1990 by the husband-and-wife team of Iwona and Piotr Bigoński.
A spectacular labour of love, other sections bristle with bizarre, Gaudi-style sculptures and scenic, hidden alcoves.Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
After opening a gardening centre, the couple decided on creating a string of gardens to complement their place of business. Evolving ever since, the project has now become one of the region’s big draws, attracting tens of thousands of tourists per year.
Spanning about ten hectares of the 35 owned by the pair, highlights include a string of different gardens each designed to follow their own theme – among others, visitors can walk the Wild Topiary, a place whose wavy-shaped hedges have been planted to spell out Hortulus from above.
Spanning about ten hectares of the 35 owned by the pair, highlights include a string of different gardens each designed to follow their own theme.Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
A celebration of the unusual and unexpected, the gardens further include a stone circle designed to channel the energy of the cosmos, as well as a separate space festooned with sundials of every shape and size.
A spectacular labour of love, other sections bristle with bizarre, Gaudi-style sculptures, scenic, hidden alcoves or cutesy little chalets that pop from the flowerbeds as if swiped from the pages of a fairy tale.
Home in all to around 6,000 species and varieties of trees and plants, Hortulus Spectabilis has made the most of its micro-climate.Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
Passing over footbridges, or down meandering paths lined with artwork, it’s an enchanting experience that hits visitors in a rich bang of colour.
Even more standard attractions, such as the classic rose garden, beguile with their almost clandestine sense of intimacy.
Passing over footbridges, or down meandering paths lined with artwork, it’s an enchanting experience that hits visitors in a rich bang of colour.Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
Home to around 6,000 species and varieties of trees and plants, Hortulus Spectabilis has made the most of its micro-climate.
Selected specifically for this, the steady temperatures, acidic soil, and rainfall patterns have combined to ensure that plants that would wither and die in most other places in Poland thrive here.
Created using 18,000 seedlings, and with the paths covering 3,218 metres, the world’s largest hornbeam maze is a masterpiece that leads to a 20-metre-high observation deck.Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
For all this, the central lure is a labyrinth that was ten-years in the making.
Created using 18,000 seedlings, and with the paths covering 3,218 metres, the world’s largest hornbeam maze is a masterpiece that leads to a 20-metre-high observation deck that was designed to mimic strands of DNA.
Awarded numerous times by various touristic portals, it is in these gardens where you feel the impossible can happen.Hortulus Spectabilis/Facebook
Equating to seven-storeys, this vertiginous panoramic platform allows for bird’s eye views of the gardens in all their pomp.
Awarded numerous times by various touristic portals, it is in these gardens where you feel the impossible can happen. A momentous tribute to the creativity and vision of the Bigoński, the latest accolade, however, seems the biggest of them all.