Šimkovy sady Park

In the 1908–1909 competition for the city’s regulating plan, the winning architectural teams designed a block development on both sides of Piletický Creek north of the first ring road and the barracks area. In the project by Václav Rejchl Jr., Vladimír Zákrejs and Josef Šejna, only

a tree line was to be built along the Piletický Creek, while in the project by Oldřich Liska and Otakar Klumpar, a new town centre with a municipal office, a municipal fire station, a military hospital and a small park was to be built in the eastern part, in the area of today’s Buzulucká and Na Střezině streets. Only one other competition proposal with the slogan “Zion” included

a larger park area in these places. In the general building plan by Václav Rejchl Jr. and Oldřich Liska from 1911, there was already supposed to be a large park that would continue north behind the circular avenue towards Věkoše. Josef Gočár returned to the solution of the northern sector in his regulatory plan, where he had already planned a large green area between 1925 and 1926: a public park on the left bank of the Piletický Creek, and a sports stadium on the right bank, adjacent to the Sokol stadium at the Sokol gym.

 

In 1927, Gočár proposed to place an H-shaped building of an outpatient clinic, the so-called Ambulatorium, in the south-eastern sector of the future park. However, this plan was abandoned and the whole area was again intended as a park in the 1928 regulatory plan. Interestingly, in this version, Gočár planned the right bank of the Piletický Creek in more detail: he even designed loose clay paths, while the left bank, where the later park was created, was as yet without a more detailed concept. Although the designs of the Šimkovy sady Park, preserved in the Gočár’s estate at the National Technical Museum, are undated, we can roughly date them to the period 1930–1933. All of the designs concerned the development of the area on the left bank of the Piletický Creek bounded by today’s Okružní, Buzulucká and Šimkova streets. From the very beginning, Gočár planned to place an artificial water surface, which was to be connected by a tributary and outflow embankment from the Piletický Creek. In another version, the creek was to have only an inflow embankment. Already in the early designs, an artificial mound was to be created in the vicinity, which would consist of soil from the excavated pond. It was not until the last stage of the designs, when the water surface took on its final kidney shape and an island was created in the middle of the eastern part, that the two embankments were removed and the pond became a pond. From the beginning, the park layout was conceived as an English park with loose paths and scattered trees of the same species – pines, spruces, willows, etc. The uneven chances of the former fort were left and new walking paths with shrubbery and benches were created. In one of the colourful designs, Gočár suggested the creation of a multi-purpose sports field with roughly the same area as the entire pond and with a clay surface. The sports field was eventually moved south of the pond and was much smaller. A residential pier was apparently planned adjacent to the pond. In the almost definitive design, Gočár envisaged one bridge over the expansive pond, but

a design where he planned two bridges in approximately the same places where they were later actually built has survived. The park was planned as a passageway – from the Piletický Creek, along which the road led, through the alley from Věkoše, today’s Buzulucká Street. 

Based on the testimony of Oldřich Šmída and Václav Vanický, urban planning theorist Jiří Krátký concluded that the design of the park was entrusted to Alois Wachsman. Against this thesis, which is also reproduced by Jakub Potůček, is the fact that the artistic form of all the colourful designs of the park is very amateurish, while Alois Wachsman was an excellent draughtsman, cartoonist and painter. One can also doubt Josef Gočár’s supposed “disgust with the achievements of the new mayor Pilnáček”, since his project work for Hradec Králové did not decline much in the 1930s, both in ongoing projects and in his willingness to accept new commissions.

 

As evidenced by the surviving photographs in the Gočár’s collection, the park was completely replanted almost on a green field. The first footbridge was built immediately during the excavation of the pond, which took place in 1934–1935: “According to the progress of the earthworks so far, carried out as emergency work in the new orchards by the Piletický Creek, it can be judged that the excavation of the projected pond will be completed by spring and that a considerable part of the other areas will be so regulated by the ballast that it can be sown with grass and planted with trees and shrubs. The new park will be visited by the public. For the passage of the public passing from the left dam of the Piletický Creek through the new park to Bienenbergova Street, it would be advisable to build a footbridge across the narrowed area of the pond near the mound,” wrote the town’s technical office in January 1935. The footbridge, designed by the office in December 1934, was constructed from city timber that had been requested in January 1935. The second footbridge on the west side of the pond was constructed in 1939–1940 by local master carpenter Karl Škaloud. Between 1935 and 1939, a wooden building was built on the southern shore of the pond, which served as a clubhouse for the scout troop. It may have been built by František Komárek, a builder from Hradec Králové, who was an enthusiastic supporter of local scouting and built a wooden Scout headquarters on the bank of the Orlice River in 1934. 

 

The original design did not include a solution for the right bank of the former Piletický Creek (north-western part). The creek divided the area until 1957, when its bed was relocated north of the town. The area behind the former brook, today’s northwestern part of the park, acquired its current form only during the reconstruction of the entire orchard in 2011–2013.

The reconstruction, which included the addition of hanging paths along the banks of the pond, was designed by the architectural studio Žárovka architekti. In the north-western part of the gardens, a stepped terrain mastaba was left over from a failed attempt to build

a Czech-Japanese cultural centre in the 1990s, which was incorporated into the new concept. The original plan of Žárovka architects was to level the terrain and create a system of ponds connected by a sophisticated artificial sewer, but this did not come to fruition.

 

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