Josef Kumpán

Josef Kumpán was one of the most important garden architects and landscape architects of the interwar period in Czechoslovakia. Between 1901 and 1904 he trained as a gardener at the Eisenberg conifer tree nurseries in Jezeří, and continued his studies at the Higher School of Fruit and Horticulture in Lednice. He then left the country to work in Europe, mainly in France and Germany. In 1919, he founded his own landscaping studio in the town of Roudnice nad Labem and subsequently in Prague. His projects included the landscaping of the gardens beneath Prague Castle, the chateau park in Zbraslav and Lány, the rose garden on Petřín Hill in Prague, and public parks in Kolín, Moravská Třebová, Třebíč, and Zlín.

In Hradec Králové, Josef Kumpán worked on two projects: the so-called Officer’s Park, called Jiráskovy sady Park from 1931, where he founded a rosarium and modified a mound with a rock garden, and a private garden in Střelecká Street. Before WWII, he designed a municipal swimming pool in collaboration with Václav Kolátor and Karel Krix in the nearby town of Litomyšl. Between 1924 and 1925, Kumpán landscaped a large garden for the Villa Čerych villa in Česká Skalice, designed by Otakar Novotný. In the 1920s, he landscaped a rugged romantic garden with a swimming pool and a pergola for Villa Ella in Dvůr Králové nad Labem. Between 1928 and 1929, landscaped a park for today’s Náměstí Míru Square in Prague-Vinohrady.

Josef Kumpán was also an editor and publicist. He authored the manuals Domácí zahrada (Home Garden; 1922), Jak bydleti (How to Live; 1932), and Novodobé zahrady (Modern Gardens; 1935). He also wrote for the conservative magazine Krásy naše domova, which he also co-edited, and the handbook Okrašlovací rádce.

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