The Public Procurement and Municipal Investments Department of Bolesławiec City Hall is now preparing design documentation that will determine what work needs to be carried out on the observation tower and what it will cost. Naturally, the design work will be preceded by an application to the Monuments Conservator requesting conservation guidelines concerning the tower’s renovation and restoration.
From a study by the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec:
The tower was erected on 22 June 1873. It was built by Etienne Doussin, owner of the nearby “Próg” farm, for his wife Jenny Latermann, the mother of Jenny Bary-Doussin, a famous sculptor. The picturesque Neo-Gothic structure was incorporated two years later into a park designed by Eduard Petzold. To this day, the initials of the founder and the date “E. D. 1873.” can be seen above the entrance. In the past, the tower offered views of the town and surrounding area. The original park design was created at the end of 1875 by the renowned garden architect Eduard Petzold, commissioned privately by Etienne Doussin, owner of the nearby “Próg” farm. The park’s oldest trees date from that period: horse chestnuts, red oaks and black locusts. Petzold had a large area at his disposal north of the farm. To the east, it was bordered by an avenue leading towards today’s village of Kruszyn (Gnadenberg), marked on both sides by regular rows of trees. Petzold’s task was to highlight the observation tower (1873), which Etienne Doussin had founded for his wife Jenny. Petzold planned to create a hippodrome layout, bounded on one side by the tower, with its axes marked by four regular rows of trees in total, taking the form of an arch at the end. The hippodrome was to blend into the greenery of an irregular landscape park, in which Petzold designed clusters of vegetation—several trees per group—at varying elevations. Owing to its location on a hill, the park has a highly picturesque character; several broad avenues and smaller paths were laid out here. The grounds contain approximately 40 different species of trees, shrubs and dwarf shrubs, including several protected species: common ivy, lily of the valley, guelder rose, common buckthorn and common periwinkle. The park has retained its boundaries to this day.
The project “Reconstruction of Jenny’s Neo-Gothic Observation Tower Located on the Wooded Hill by Piastów Street in Bolesławiec” is part of broader activities carried out under the project “Towers and Observation Points, and Trails for the Development of Tourism in the Nysa Euroregion.” The project’s main objective is to create an observation point based on the tower, restore the park on the wooded hill to its period of greatest splendour, and introduce contemporary functions to revitalise the area.
commissioned information: Bolesławiec City Hall