Brody combines a Baroque palace and park complex with a hiking trail that starts in the palace courtyard. The large, two-storey Baroque palace is the central building of the complex; from there, the “Od Sasa do lasa” trail passes through the historic palace park and continues along the southern shore of Jezioro Brodzkie. The architecture and trail are thus directly connected: the starting point is in the palace courtyard, and the route then takes in the lakeshore and the “Na Wąwozach” forest path. For planning your trip, you can clearly choose between focusing on architectural history and the layout of the park, or taking an excursion that adds a hike to these themes.
Brody and its architectural history
Brody is located in the Wzniesienia Gubińskie area between Lakes Nabłocie and Brodzkie. The palace was built on the site of an earlier two-storey building. This older building was constructed by the Promnitz family between 1670 and 1674 on a horseshoe-shaped floor plan. These dates refer to the predecessor building, not to the palace itself. The horseshoe-shaped floor plan describes the form of the older building and helps distinguish this earlier construction phase from the Baroque palace.
A historic park with botanical details
The palace park is also worth a closer look. Preserved features include intersecting right-angled avenues of small-leaved lime trees and an avenue of horse chestnuts. There are also two large London plane trees, Scots pines, a weeping beech, American tulip trees and a white oak. Bald cypresses are also among the historic park’s exotic trees. Alongside the architecture, the combination of formal avenues and different trees offers another perspective on the complex. It is helpful to distinguish between the avenues and individual trees: the lime and horse chestnut avenues shape the grounds, while the plane trees and other species mentioned have their own botanical features.
From the palace courtyard to Jeziora Wysokie
The “Od Sasa do lasa” hiking trail starts in the courtyard of the Brühl Palace, passes through the historic palace park and follows the southern shore of Jezioro Brodzkie to the “Na Wąwozach” forest path. Its destination is nearby Jeziora Wysokie, at the Nature and Forest Education Centre, outside Brody. There, you can learn about various tree and shrub species in the dendrological garden, especially different types of pine, climb the forest observation and viewing tower, and take in the surrounding landscape. The hike, including a visit to the centre and the climb up the tower, takes about 2.5 hours. As route details may change, check the current route before setting out.
Plan your stay around your interests
Decide whether to devote your stay mainly to the palace and park, or also include the garden, tower and landscape at the trail’s destination. This lets you combine the town’s cultural highlights with a clearly defined nature excursion, without conflating the stops in Brody and Jeziora Wysokie.
Discover more destinations: Tuplice, Zasieki.
Back to the main travel overview: Powiat Żarski.
