Japanese garden in Jarków

The Japanese garden in Jarków is a small but consistently designed garden in the traditional Japanese style, laid out in the village of Jarków in the Lewin Kłodzki municipality, in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It covers an area of around a thousand square metres, a scale that, for a garden of this type, lets you see all its elements during a single, unhurried walk.

The second garden of its kind in Poland

Work on the garden began in 1980. It was opened to visitors in 2003, as the second site of this type in Poland, after the Japanese garden in Wrocław. Such a long time between the start of work and the opening is typical of Japanese gardens, in which the plants and the arrangement of stones mature over years before the whole reaches its intended composition.

Pond, waterfall and stone garden

The garden contains a pond with a small waterfall and a section laid out in the style of a dry stone garden, known as karesansui, where carefully arranged stones and gravel take the place of water. Both elements are classic motifs of Japanese garden art: the pond and waterfall are meant to reflect a natural mountain landscape in miniature, and the stone garden serves contemplation, without the upkeep typical of a lawn or flowerbed.

Ogrody magazine award

In 2000, even before its formal opening to visitors, the garden received an award from the monthly magazine "Ogrody". The distinction from the trade publication confirmed that the project in Jarków was a cut above the private gardens in a similar style that were not in short supply in Poland at the time.

The Japanese garden as a genre

Japanese gardens differ from European ones above all in their approach to plants and stone. Instead of symmetrical flowerbeds and clipped hedges, the composition is based on asymmetry, empty spaces and single elements meant to draw attention, such as a stone, a lantern or a single tree. The garden in Jarków, although created far from Japan, keeps to the same principles of composition, which sets it apart from the typical parks and squares of the Kłodzko region.

Practical information

• The garden is located in the village of Jarków, in the Lewin Kłodzki municipality, in Kłodzko County.
• Nearby, in the same municipality, is also the railway viaduct in Lewin Kłodzki, which can be visited on the same trip.
• In the area it is also worth planning time for the Skull Chapel in Czermna and a walk around Kudowa-Zdrój.
• Opening hours and any visiting rules should be checked on site or at the municipal tourist information point, as the garden has no website of its own.