Interior Design, Public Space DesignFlorence LSeptember 18, 2025Kraffer GardenInterior Design, Garden Design, Landscaping

KRAFFER GARDEN || A Baroque Legacy Reawakened into a Cultural and Community Haven

Interior Design, Public Space DesignFlorence LSeptember 18, 2025Kraffer GardenInterior Design, Garden Design, Landscaping

Once forgotten behind crumbling stone walls, the Kraffer Garden now blossoms again; a Baroque legacy reshaped into a living stage for culture, flowers, and community.

Dating back to the 18th century, the garden was originally part of a grand palace before fire and separation altered its fate. For generations, the Kraffer family nursery cultivated beauty here, until nationalization in the 1950s led to insensitive alterations and eventual decline. What was once a flourishing horticultural landmark became a brownfield, silent and overgrown. That silence was broken in 2021, when Ateliér Za Mák undertook the ambitious task of reviving the garden.

*Historic geometric beds restored with vibrant seasonal plantings. The 1904 greenhouse and Baroque stone walls frame the renewed landscape. The Baroque palace looms beyond the revived Kraffer Garden.*

*The mint-green gates open to a space where history and community flourish. The garden now serves as a public haven for workshops and cultural events.*

Their restoration honours the geometric rigour of the original Baroque design while reinterpreting it for modern use. Historic terraces were uncovered, stone walls repaired, and greenhouses reimagined, creating a layered environment where history meets contemporary sustainability. Today, strict geometry guides the order of the garden, but within its borders, wildness thrives — vibrant perennials, herbs, and climbing plants blur the boundaries between structure and spontaneity. Rainwater management, recycling, and biodiversity enhancement are woven seamlessly into the design, ensuring resilience for the future.

At the northeastern edge, architectural intervention by Matěj Šebek Architekti completes the dialogue between past and present. Where warehouses once decayed, a new extension now opens the garden to the public. Housing a flower shop and landscape architecture studio, the building rests lightly on a concrete plinth and adjoins the Baroque wall, fragments of which remain visible inside. Its flat green roof blends into the terraced landscape, while a monolithic lintel symbolically ties the new structure to the historic enclosure. Inside, exposed beams, limewashed ceramic blocks, and plywood partitions create a delicate yet functional atmosphere, an architecture that defers to its garden while amplifying its presence.

*Inside the flower shop, fresh seasonal arrangements await visitors.*

More than a restoration, Kraffer Garden is a revival of spirit. It is once again a place of cultivation, not only of flowers but of community life. Visitors wander through orderly beds and fragrant borders, shop for seasonal blooms, or join workshops on herbs and horticultural craft. The garden hosts cultural events, environmental programs, and even weddings, weaving itself back into the daily rhythm of Jindřichův Hradec.

This is not just a garden restored but a heritage renewed, a forgotten corner reborn as a beacon of culture, ecology, and human connection.