British Chargé d'Affaires Tom Carter with members of the organising committee at the launch
of Bratislava's first Open Parks & Gardens Weekend
June 9th -10th 2007 were quite special days in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. During that weekend the National Trust of Slovakia, together with many Slovak partners, was able to hold the first Open Parks and Gardens Weekend.
Everybody in the city, whether resident or visitor, who appreciates the historical, cultural, natural, social and many other values of the parks and gardens of Bratislava had a chance for the very first time to celebrate the existence and uniqueness of its green spaces - the common creation of man and nature! In staging this celebration we were aided by the experience of the London Parks & Gardens Trust in organising its own Open Garden Squares Weekend and particularly by the kind help of its Vice-President, Mr lan Kennaway.
How was this starting year? Before organising Open Parks and Gardens Weekend, we were not sure how people would accept this new kind of happening in their city. However, even during the first day we got the feeling that our event was both very useful and timely! Bratislava is at the moment a very fast-growing and developing city and there is enormous pressure, especially on the areas which are not built up yet, unfortunately also on historic parks and gardens or any kind of green space. Sometimes it looks like all those areas are already history.
From the reaction of many of the participants in OPGW, we are now convinced that people in our city still have a very positive attitude to parks and gardens and are willing to be involved in their active protection and sensible use. We just have to work with them. Organising a regular Open Parks and Gardens Weekend could be the way towards a better future for our parks and gardens.
Some of the most interesting feedback on our event came from our survey / competition to find the Favourite Historical Park or Garden in Bratislava. We not only asked visitors to give us the name of their favourite park and garden but also asked them some more questions concerning their attitude to historic parks and gardens. Although the winner of the competition as the favourite place for all generations was the originally French-style Medical Garden, we saw that there are many parks and gardens of Bratislava which people cherish close to their hearts!
British Chargé d'Affaires Tom Carter with members of the organising committee at the launch
of Bratislava's first Open Parks & Gardens Weekend
Open Historic Parks and Gardens Weekend in Bratislava was officially launched with an opening ceremony in the Medical Garden on Saturday 9th June. We were very happy that one of the speakers at the opening ceremony was Mr Thomas Carter - Chargé d'Affaires at the British Embassy in Slovakia (the whole event was part of the Historic Parks and Gardens of Bratislava project, supported by British Embassy) who expressed his pleasure with this kind of event, symbolically connecting two European Capitals, Bratislava and London.
During the two days visitors could take part in many interesting activities at all the sites involved. Together with our partners, we prepared, for example, an exhibition of landscape architects and their work, a concert of celtic music, demonstrations of tree treatments, flower arrangements, children's games, a literary evening with the young writers etc. The activities most appreciated by many people were guided tours through the parks and gardens involved. The guides were students from the Secondary Gardening School in Malinovo.
People could also receive at all localities a very small memento - the so-called Stone of Knowledge, which reflected the symbolic connection of the art of Man with the art of Nature. These beautiful stones were produced with the help of pupils from the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Basic School in Bratislava.
Perhaps the most attractive locality was the small Koch's Garden - a dendrological and architectural gem of Bratislava from the last century. During the two days almost 500 residents and visitors of Bratislava visited this site! This garden is normally closed throughout the year and was opened only during our event. There is a big pressure from development companies to acquire this garden, and its future and public access are unsure at the moment. We would be very happy to help the current owner find ways to protect this unique garden for the future generations!
As our project involved the whole area of Bratislava and especially its Old City, we asked the Mayor of the Bratislava, Mr Andrej Durkovsky, and also the Mayor of the Old City, Mr Andrej Petrek, to be patrons of the event and in this way support it. We are happy that they were willing to co-operate with us and assumed patronage. Both Mayors have also expressed their interest to continue with co-operation in the future.
The idea of an Open Parks and Gardens Weekend also attracted the Association for Garden Design and Landscaping from the town of Nitra. Members of this Association were able to put on a similar event in their town over the same weekend, coinciding with events both in Bratislava and London.
Having successfully started this event, we hope that we can continue with it in the future and that many more cities from Slovakia and the whole of Europe will join us!