Jordan Park

Jordan Park, also known as Jordan's Garden or Park Jordana, was established in 1889 as the first public playground in Kraków, Poland, and the first of its kind in Europe. It was equipped with exercise fixtures modeled after those of similar playgrounds in the United States. The park is located in Kraków’s Błonia (municipal grasslands that had previously served as cattle pasture).

The original Jordan Park included a swimming pool, 12 playing and soccer fields, as well as numerous running and exercise tracks. Facilities were added for indoor activities in 1906, in case of bad weather. The park was also equipped with locker rooms and showers. On top of that, a free meal service was established for the children.

Jordan Park was Dr. Henryk Jordan's biggest achievement, brought to completion with the help from the director of Kraków City Parks, Bolesław Malecki.

The concept of Jordan’s Gardens became very popular throughout interwar Poland. Similar gardens were opened in Warsaw, Płock, Kalisz and Lublin. In 1928 the Society of Jordan’s Gardens was established to oversee the building of all recreational facilities in the country.

The most innovative aspect of Jordan's idea of public parks was perhaps the change in public's perception: stressing the importance of physical education and making people realize that physical exercise is equally important to intellectual development of children, while shaping their personality.

Since the beginning, Jordan Park ran programs based solely on games and exercises. Classes were originally run by students of Kraków's universities, whose work was supervised personally by Jordan. There were 14 fields of different shapes and sizes in the park, and many gymnastics devices. The main focus was on games, so that the participants wouldn't feel pressured but rather spent time exercising in a pleasant way. They practiced the javelin throw, archery, and organized walking on stilts, but also played team sports based on field competition. Soccer, cricket and tennis were introduced, as well as common games such as "Chinese wall", "cat and mouse" and many others. Activities were to be learned and practised outside the park as well, even if there weren't any sport facilities nearby.

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Wikipedia