A bust of one of the most prominent figures in Czech landscape architecture, Professor Jiří Mareček, by the academic sculptor Jaroslav Hylas, was unveiled in Libosad on Wednesday, January 21, 2026. Professor Mareček is the creator of the landscape design of the CZU campus, and Libosad is his crowning achievement and the pride of the university.
Landscape architect Professor Jiří Mareček (*June 3, 1930, †January 26, 2024) was a great teacher, expert, and person, a legend in the field of Garden and Landscape Architecture. He was the long-time director of the VÚKOZ research institute in Průhonice and a professor at the MENDELU, the former University of Applied Sciences in Brno in Lednice na Moravě. He was the only Czech landscape architect to receive the Medal of Merit, 1st degree from the President of the Republic for his lifelong work in the field on October 28, 2022. Jiří Mareček worked at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague for a long time, first in the 1960s and then again from the 1990s. He was in close contact with the university until the end of his life.
“Professor Mareček has made indelible contributions to the quality of our campus, but also to the existence of landscape architecture teaching at CZU. In his field, he has been the most prominent figure in our country over the past few decades. I am proud that his name is associated with our university,” emphasizes CZU Rector Professor Petr Sklenička.
Jiří Mareček is the author of the landscape design for the CZU campus, where he excellently developed Prof. Jan Čejka´s original urban and architectural concept of the campus. We can encounter this work of his every day and admire his feeling for combining the urban design and individual buildings of the campus with a brilliant composition of trees that connects the separate buildings into a harmonious landscape. He was also involved in establishing study programs at CZU focused on garden and landscape architecture. His many years of effort resulted in the accreditation of the Landscape Architecture study program, which is now taught at all three levels of study at the FAFNR of the CZU in Prague and also has international accreditation from IFLA – International Federation of Landscape Architects.
Dean of the Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Professor Josef Soukup, recalls: “Professor Mareček founded one of the most popular fields of study at our faculty today and laid the foundations of a professional school that, under the leadership of his followers, led by Associate Professor Jebavý, is developing dynamically and achieving significant success at home and abroad. His open and friendly approach to students and colleagues, as well as his ability to share his experience and inspire enthusiasm for the field, are a lasting inspiration for the academic community. The Libosad project represents a unique work in which his professional and human legacy to future generations is materialized.”
Professor Mareček´s personality is also perceived in a very similar way by his close colleague, head of the Department of Garden and Landscape Architecture at the FAFNR, Associate Professor Matouš Jebavý: "Professor Mareček was an expert with unwavering energy, who spread optimism and enthusiasm for the field around him and inspired many generations of students. I was lucky enough to stand by his side at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague since 2000, and I had the opportunity to learn a lot from him. For me personally, he became a lifelong role model for his passion for the field and his broad knowledge, which he so brilliantly and charismatically passed on to all younger colleagues, male and female students. I am thrilled the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague paid tribute to the professor and that he will remain symbolically present at our university."
Professor Mareček has spent his entire life primarily dealing with issues in garden and landscape architecture in rural landscapes and rural settlements, as well as with the compositional principles of landscape architecture. His extensive design work includes, for example, the concept of thematic focus and spatial design of the Dendrological Garden in Průhonice, the initial idea of the solution of the vegetation accompaniment of the D1 motorway, the general green areas of some of our spa towns, and a whole range of residential and landscape green projects, such as the implemented solution of extensive landscaping in Kralupy nad Vltavou.
His publishing activity is also vibrant, with dozens of scientific, professional, and popular science articles. He is the author of several essential book publications, from which experts and students still draw knowledge and inspiration. These include, for example, the books Greenery in the Village (1966), Garden and its Arrangement (1975), Garden (1991), Greenery in Rural Settlements and Their Landscape Environment (2004), Landscape Architecture of Rural Settlements (2005), and his last life-summarizing work Garden and Landscape Architecture: Compositional Starting Points (2022). As this brief overview shows, the professor´s unflagging energy accompanied him almost to the very end of his wildly fruitful and long life.
