The 19th century was also important for natural science - Bolesławiec was the birthplace of K.F. Appun - and ‘green architecture’ - the town still preserves three parks started by a famous landscape gardener E. Petzold.

Karl Ferdinand Appun /1820 - 1872/

A successful scientist and traveller, he was born in the family of a Bolesławiec bookseller. Fascinated by zoology and botany, he took advice from Alexander von Humboldt and - supported by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV - left for Venezuela in 1849. For almost 20 years Appun studied countries of South America, and published his findings in the two-volume work entitled “In the tropics”, and in numerous articles. His scientific collections twice won a prize at London exhibitions.

28 Market Square - today the Agora bookshop (13)

K.F. Appun was born in the baroque tenement house where the Appuns had their publishing house since the early 19th century. The building was torn down in 1897, to give way to a department store opened 5 years later. That was one of the most stylish and modern stores in the town. Particularly admired was the façade, an example of the then-fashionable architecture referring to historical forms, with prevalence of modernised neo-gothic and neo-renaissance motifs. The house was meticulously reconstructed after the World War 2 and is now home to a bookshop, in tune with its traditions.

Eduard Petzold /1815-1891/

One of Europe’s most outstanding landscape gardeners. He mainly worked in Thüringen and in the famous gardens of Bad Muskau that became his life’s work. Another great landscape gardener, Pückler, when recommending Petzold to the Prince Friderick of the Netherlands, said: “My presence in Muskau is no longer needed, as he is my alter ego and I expect more of him than of myself”. Petzold, regarded by contemporaries as an artist of true genius, was to realise the Prince’s dream of creating the biggest and most beautiful park in Europe. Apart from his work in Muskau, he created garden designs for other towns, too - including 17 parks in Holland and as many as 55 in Silesia. He was also known for his theoretical works, presenting his art of park and garden design. In Bolesławiec, Petzold implemented three interesting parks and gardens in the 1860s and 1870s. He was known for ellipsoid paths and for crossings which excluded right angles. Outlines of his parks had bold shapes, with the most beautiful singleton forms duly highlighted and the variety of colour tones stressed. He also excelled in creating extensive, far-reaching axes and landscape observation highlights in the surrounding area (this was reflected in the Jenny tower in Bolesławiec, and in the park valley with a view on the city panorama at the Próg farm). Petzold preferred deciduous trees, operating with a wide range of means, boldly juxtaposing diverse tree forms and contrastive leaf colours, aiming to achieve rich ‘painting’ effects. As an artist, he strove to unite the nature’s offering with the potential of human art, to create a “living painted landscape”.

The Park at the District Court (26)

On 3rd October, 1865, the City Council allocated 550 thalers for creation of a park adjacent to the new Gymnasium building, and the design was entrusted to Eduard Petzold. The park has a simple spatial composition and trees characteristic for the parks of the 2nd half of the 19th century, including wych elm, green ash, London plane, purple form of the common beech, northern red oak, eleóCrimean linden, European beech, common hornbeam, maples, sycamores and the rare European ash. The sculpture complement of the park was the marble bust of Martina Opitz placed on a plinth. The bust was chiselled by the Wrocław sculptor Michaelis in 1877. The park is considered the first example of conscious shaping of green areas adjacent to public buildings in Germany.

Plac Wolności - the former Station Square (30)

The square, walled from the north by the buildings of the railway station and the post office, and from the east - by tenement houses of Kaszubska St, consisted of two parts. First part was a park created in 1854, the other - designed by Petzold in 1872 - included a memorial to soldiers-victims of the French-Prussian war in the centre of a decorative bed of low growth greenery. The monument by Wilhelm Dörich made in the same year, was a column capped with an eagle sculpture moved from the Upper Gate. The place was fenced from the street with aesculus avenues and supported from the east by the high growth of the park between today’s Kaszubska and Mickiewicza streets. The Park at the court, the smaller green square and the Station square park, as well as the green areas surrounding the city walls in the 1920s were all combined into a single green walking path.

The Park at Kosiby St (31)

The observation tower named ‘Jenny’, situated in the park between Kosiby St and the Piastów avenue was built in 1873 to commemorate the wife of Etienne Doussin, the owner of the nearby “Próg” farm. The picturesque building in the neo-gothic style was included in Eduard Petzold’s park two years later. The park was dominated by native, local trees, with just a handful of foreign species, such as aesculus, red oak and black locust.

Park Strzelecki - now at Parkowa St (32)

The present shape of the park is a result of the works done in April 1921, which remodelled the former Strzelecki Square and the Irrgarten park. The area was decorated with classicist buildings erected in early 19th century: Hans and Wilhelm lodges from 1797 and 1799, as well as the Hunters’ House built in 1827-29 /Dom Bractwa Kurkowego/. Only the Wilhelm lodge was preserved of the entire group of buildings.

The Municipal Forest at Jeleniogórska St - Zeche (6)

The Municipal Forest, called Zeche /The Mine/ by local citizens, was subject to a gradual conversion by Scholz, a painter, starting from 1870s. In 1874 walking avenues were plotted in the northern part of the forest, and a small pond was dug, with a little island in the middle. On the other side of the road, thanks to the dam created on the Leśny Strumień (Forest Stream), the former meadow was turned into a pond, hence called the Forest Pond. „Leśny Zamek” (Forest Castle) was a restaurant opened on the pond’s bank, and the attractive location brought crowds of rest-seeking citizens to the pond. In 1905, the Zeche park was extended with the reconstructed tunnel entrance, which was to remind about the gold that was mined here in the Middle Ages, and in 1912 the theatre was founded (Leśny Teatr), with the open-air stage. The 67-step stairway was built, too, leading to the hill top, where in 1922 a cross-shaped monument was placed, to the memory of soldiers - victims in the World War 1. The author of the work was Encke, a Berlin-based sculptor

The Park of the palace at 28-29 Zgorzelecka St - now the Special School (33)

The picturesque park created in 1850s had a small water basin, a bridge and a neo-gothic pavilion. The green area surrounded the gothic palace - built for graff Pückler in 1857 - that was later taken over by count Hatzfeld, known for his music concerts, and then by Samuel Woller, an Englishman, owner of “Concordia” textile works.