Saxon Gardens

The Saxon Garden is a 15.5-hectare public garden in central Warsaw, Poland, facing Piłsudski Square. It is the oldest public park in the city, founded in the late 17th century and opened to the public in 1727. The garden was originally the site of Warsaw fortifications and a palace built in 1666 for the powerful aristocrat, Jan Andrzej Morsztyn. It was extended in the reign of King Augustus II, who attached it to the 'Saxon Axis', a line of parks and palaces linking the western outskirts of Warsaw with the Vistula River. The park features a sundial dating from 1863, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and an empire-style fountain designed by Marconi in 1855. Many of the trees in the park survived World War II and date back to a quarter of a millennium ago