2. The Baths Park, orRoyal Baths (Polish: Park Łazienkowski, orŁazienki Królewskie) is the largest park in Warsow, Poland, occupying 76 hectares of the city center. The park-and-palacecomplexlies in Warsaw'sDowntown (Śródmieście), on Ujazdów Avenue (Aleje Ujazdowskie) on the „Royal Route" linking the Royal CastlewithWilanów, to the south. North of the Baths Park (Park Łazienkowski), on the other side of Agrykola Street, stands Ujazdów Castle. Łazienki Park was designed in the 17th century by Tylman van Gameren, in thebaroque style, for Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski. It took the name Łazienki ("Baths") from a bathing pavilionthat was located there. In 1764 the gardens were acquired by Stanisław August Poniatowski after his electionas King of Poland. The development of the classicist-style gardens became a major project for Stanisław August during his reign. The park-and-palace complex was designed by Domenico Merlini, Johann Christian Kammsetzer and landscape gardener Jan Christian Schuch. Its principal buildings cluster around or near the Łazienki Lake and Łazienki River. StanisławAugust's palace situated on the lake is called the „Palace on Water." Most of the park's buildings burned during and after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, amid fighting between German and Polish forces. The structures nevertheless were relatively well-preserved, compared to the Old Town (the Germans had drilled holes in the palace walls for placement of explosives but had not gotten around to detonating them). Reconstruction of the park and palaces was completed within a few years after World War II.
