Park Boheminium

One day while we were in Plzen, we drove out to the spa towns, not to take the waters but to find Park Boheminium, a beautiful park on a hillside above Marianske Lazne (Marienbad). Inside the park are winding paths populated with 1:25 scale models of historic buildings within the Czech Republic. There are more than three dozen models. I've chosen five to post here, but a small sample of the 105 photos I took in all.

Click on the photo to see the detail and read the fine print. A small explanation of the park is on a billboard just inside the entrance. I was sooooo glad to see that photography is not forbidden!

The church of Saint John of Nepomuk.

Here's a photo with George to give you an idea of scale. If he were to walk up beside the church, I think they would be about the same height.

This mill has a tiny millrace with running water.

The plantings around the buldings are carefully chosen to be in the same scale. Moss is used often for grass. I guess that eliminates the need for teeny tiny lawnmowers or micro-mini sheep.

Karlstejn Castle is the largest model.

I was enchanted with this reproduction of the buildings in Grandmother Valley. I have a copy of the book The Grandmother: a Story of Country Live in Bohemia byBozena Nemec published in 1892 that I have treasured for years and years.

The final selection includes details of the building, a tower in Cesky Budejovice. On my next trip to the Czech Republic, I would dearly love to visit the workrooms at the park to see the process of creating these wonderful models.