"Park "Olexandriya"" a Bila Tserkva Travel Page by marinka_malinka

The park was laid out by Duchess Oleksandra in 1797 close to the river Ros. The land for this landscape was given to her as a gift by her husband, Count Ksaveriy Branytsky, a Polish aristocrat. Besides, Oleksandra, a lady-in-waiting of Empress Catherine the Great, was the niece of Prince G. Potyomkin, the Empress’ favourite. They spent four million roubles in gold on turning a piece of land with meadows, woods and a field into landscape art.
Emperors did visit the park. Russian czars paid visits to the park. So did poets: Adam Mickiewicz, a Polish bard, and Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet. Since then the number of visitors has grown enormously. Poets and prose writers come here for inspiration, others — to enjoy the beauty of the park.

There is a bench in the garden made of metal. It dates from the first half of the nineteenth century. There is something touchingly charming and poetic in this bench — on it you can see a coat and a tricorn. Both the coat and the tricorn are made of metal. The bench stands in a forlornly looking part of the garden.

Chinese art and everything Chinese was the craze of the days when the park was coming into being. The Chinese Bridge in the park is one of its remarkable features. It resembles a whimsical gazebo with metal statues representing squatting men with slanting eyes at the entrance. The beard of the Chinese man is brightly polished by innumerable hands who have touched it.