Canal Garden

18th–19th century, 1791 

The famous Canal Garden was opened at the instigation of Count Joseph Emanuel Canal de Malabaila (1745–1826) in Královské Vinohrady in Prague between Koňská brána (The Horse Gate) and náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad square in 1791. This unique space, combining scientific research with the beauty of a lavishly structured landscape park significantly enriched the history of the natural sciences in the Czech lands. 

 

The Canal Garden, one of the oldest botanical gardens in the Czech lands, was opened in 1791. The garden was sowed with crops as well as ornamental plants – it also included greenhouses for tropical plants – and had a small zoo with aviaries for domestic and exotic birds. The park style of the garden was complemented by small pieces of architecture (pavilions, temples, grottoes and fountains), the symbolic design of which reflected Count Canal's strong affinity with Freemasonry.

The Canal Garden also contained a botanical institute with laboratories and a lecture room. These buildings stood in the area behind what is now the National Museum. A number of prominent scientists worked there, including Franz Willibald Schmidt, Johann Christian Mikan, Jan Emanuel Pohl and Jan Novodvorský. It was Jan Novodvorský who in 1804 created the oldest inventory of plants growing in the Canal Garden, with the occurrence of many species being mentioned in the Czech lands for the very first time. Another list of the plants grown there was published in 1823 by Ignaz Friedrich Tausch, who was mostly closely involved in the work conducted in the Canal Garden, from 1815 to 1826.

Great emphasis was placed on cultivating economic plants (crops) in the Canal Garden. After Canal was appointed chairman of the Patriotic Economic Society in 1793, one of Europe’s oldest European vegetation and physiology stations was built in the garden. It cultivated new species of potatoes and other vegetables and carried out fruit-growing experiments, and a small experimental sugar refinery was also set up there. The Canal Garden also became the venue for some grand farm shows, a tradition that continued after Count Canal’s death in 1826. Riegerovy sady park is all that remains as a small reminder of this glorious era. 

 

References

Hoffmannová, E.: J. S. Presl, K. B. Presl. Praha 1973, s. 17–21. 

Janko, J.: Vědy o životě v českých zemích 1750–1950. Praha 1997.

Janko, J., Štrbáňová, S.: Věda Purkyňovy doby. Praha 1988, s. 57.

Pacáková-Hošťálková, B.: Pověstná Kanálka a jiné zahrady na plánu Viničných hor u Prahy z roku 1818. Zprávy památkové péče, 68/2008, č. 1, s. 52–55.

Spunarová, T.: Kanálská zahrada a její výstavy. Muzejní a vlastivědná práce: Časopis Společnosti přátel starožitností, 105/1997, č. 4, s. 211–220.

Internetový zdroj:
Hoskovec, L.: Malabaila de Canal, Joseph Emanuel. URL: https://botany.cz/cs/malabaila/ [17. 10. 2021].

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