Private view of an exhibition and official opening of a new garden. This is how the Dutch Days began (video)

The official opening of the Dutch Flower Garden and the private view of the exhibition of one painting - "Flowers in a Glass Vase” - inaugurated the Dutch Days in the Royal Łazienki on 28 April. Both events took place on the day when Dutch people celebrate the King’s Day.

- This garden is for the Poles, for Warsaw, and for all the citizens. I hope that they will enjoy it – said Adriann Palm, chargé d’affaires at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands opening the Dutch Flower Garden with the Director of the Royal Łazienki, Tadeusz Zielniewicz. Together, they unlocked the padlock used to close the gate which was temporarily set up in front of the Old Orangery as a symbol of the entrance to the garden.

- We are proud and happy that the opening of the Dutch Flower Garden has been linked with a great holiday – the King’s Day. Every year, the garden will be revived with new flowers and will unite the Royal Łazienki and the Netherlands – Director Zielniewicz emphasised.

The idea of enriching the Orangery Garden came from the King of the Netherlands - Willem-Alexander - during his visit to the Royal Łazienki in 2014. The design executed by a Dutch landscape designer - Niek Roozen, came to fruition thanks to generosity of Dutch and Polish companies.

The official opening of the Dutch Flower Garden was accompanied by a reception in the Old Orangery for the occasion of the King’s Day – a Dutch public holiday, in which hundreds of invited guests took part. Later, in the Palace on the Isle, a private view of the exhibition of one painting – “Flowers in a Glass Vase” by Abraham Mignon was held. The work of art comes from the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague; it is displayed as a result of cooperation with this museum and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Adriaan Palm, chargé d'affaires at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, when congratulating the Director of the Royal Łazienki on the outstanding exhibition, emphasised that it was one of the examples of Polish-Dutch cooperation and that without a doubt there would be more of them.

Both the exhibition of the famous painting as well as the colourful garden near the Old Orangery are part of Dutch Days in the Royal Łazienki organised in cooperation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The event was crowned with the European Picnic which took place on 1 May for the occasion of the presidency of the Netherlands in the Council of the European Union and the 12th anniversary of Poland’s accession into the EU.

Alongside the private view of the exhibition of one painting, a lecture entitled “The Sculpture Collection of Peter the Great” was given by Professor Sergey Androsov from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.