Visitors approach the Garden of Reflection along curving paths past the well pools. The planting echoes colours and shapes of the stained glass in the palace chapel.

Within the garden they find themselves beneath the gaze of the Cathedral tower, in a green and sheltering enclosure. Beside the path is a long, curving stone seat.

a place to pause and experience the Garden. Bishop Peter chose a line from Machado’s poem to inscribe on the stone bench because it expresses a spiritual journey ‘towards eternal values of truth, peace, justice and love. How we walk the path determines our destiny, we walk in hope.’

Wanderer, your footsteps are the path, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no path, the path is made by walking, by walking one makes the path and upon glancing back one sees the path that will never be trod again. Wanderer, there is no path – only waves upon the sea.*

At the centre is a rounded, chapel-like ‘poustinia’ open to the sky. This design reflects a religious tradition in Russia, where people seeking solitude to deepen their self-understanding would go into the woods and to small hermitages to reflect.*

*From A guide to the Palace & Gardens