Saxon Garden in Warsaw: Poland's first public park, baroque statues and the Marconi fountain

Few Warsaw parks carry as much history per hectare as the Saxon Garden (Ogrod Saski). Laid out as a private royal garden, it was opened to the public in 1727 - the first park in Poland made available to everyone. Today it covers roughly 14.6 hectares between Marszałkowska, Krolewska and Pilsudski Square, and entry is free at any hour.

Statues, a sundial and a boulder

The garden's signature is its set of 21 baroque sandstone statues of muses and virtues, made around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries in the workshops of Jan Jerzy Plersch, Franciszek Ksawery Deybl, Jan Jerzy Donat and Jozef Vinache. They are the only original remnant of the Saxon Axis, the grand baroque layout of royal Warsaw. Near the fountain stands a marble sundial from 1863 that reads the time to within five minutes, and a boulder set up in 1927 marks the 200th anniversary of the garden's opening to the public.

The fountain that crowned Warsaw's first waterworks

The late-classicist fountain on the main axis is one of four water features built in 1852-1855 to celebrate Warsaw's first municipal water supply. Both it and the reservoir above the pond - a pressure tower disguised as the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli - were designed by the Italian architect Henryk Marconi. The system drew water from the Vistula and ran until 1886; since 1957 the reservoir building has served the Grand Theatre. Below it lies an oval pond of about 0.2 hectares with the Boy with a Swan sculpture by Theodor Erdmann Kalide.

Trees and nature monuments

Around 1,200 trees grow here, mostly small-leaved limes, horse chestnuts and Norway maples. Six trees hold nature-monument status, including four ginkgoes by the pond that turn a striking gold in autumn. Bird nesting boxes, an insect hotel and deliberately left dead wood support wildlife in the middle of the city.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the palace rebuild

At the garden's eastern edge, on Pilsudski Square, soldiers keep an honour guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, housed in the surviving arcade fragment of the Saxon Palace. Under a 2021 act of parliament, the palace is being rebuilt: works started in 2022 and are due to run until 2030, after which the building is to host the Polish Senate, the voivodeship office and a cultural and artistic centre. The park's own paths were renovated in 2012-2014 with permeable surfaces.

Visiting

Enter from Pilsudski Square past the Tomb, from Krolewska or from the Marszałkowska side. The garden hosts concerts, the annual National Reading event and, since 2022, the Saxon Garden Festival, which recreates interwar Warsaw for a day. Combine a walk with the Royal Route, which starts a few minutes away at Castle Square.