Prague Castle and its surroundings form unique, monumental, and dramatic scenery, reflecting both history and present of the capital, as well as of the entire country. Among the exceptionally significant imaginative elements within this panorama, there is the mosaic of gardens and parks surrounding the seat of the Czech rulers, penetrating its ramparts in many places, and creating its natural borders elsewhere. The book Gardens near Prague Castle represents the first complex work in which each of the gardens creating a green ring around the castle dominants plays adequate role. Jan Žáček, the author, together with Přemysl Vacek, the photographer, and Jiří Sochovský, the graphic artist, prepared a representative, exclusive book, rich in illustrations, which should not be missing from any Pragensia-concerned person´s library, and which at the same time by far exceeds the framework of just a traveller´s guide to the Prague Castle gardens. It is an extended testimony of the historical roots and the present state of the local gardens microcosm, the interpretation of architectural, gardening, botanical, and namely human associations, events, and fates, being projected in the castle gardens present state.
