The French formal garden, also called the (), is a style of

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

based on

symmetry Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...

and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the

Gardens of Versailles The Gardens of Versailles (french: Jardins du château de Versailles ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover so ...

designed during the 17th century by the landscape architect André Le Nôtre for

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

and widely copied by other European courts. Éric Mension-Rigau, "Les jardins témoins de leur temps" in '' Historia'', n° 7/8 (2000).

History

Renaissance influence

The ''jardin à la française'' evolved from the

French Renaissance garden Gardens of the French Renaissance were initially inspired by the Italian Renaissance garden, which evolved later into the grander and more formal ''jardin à la française'' during the reign of Louis XIV, by the middle of the 17th century. In 14 ...

, a style which was inspired by the

Italian Renaissance garden The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the lan ...

at the beginning of the 16th century. The Italian Renaissance garden, typified by the Boboli Gardens in Florence and the

Villa Medici in Fiesole The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built for the Medici family. It was built between 1451 and 1457. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed as Medici Villas and ...

, was characterized by planting beds, or parterres, created in geometric shapes, and laid out symmetrical patterns; the use of fountains and

cascade Cascade, Cascades or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science *Cascade waterfalls, or series of waterfalls * Cascade, the CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (a protein complex) * Cascade (grape), a type of fruit * Bioc ...

s to animate the garden; stairways and ramps to unite different levels of the garden; grottos,

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by ...

s, and statuary on mythological themes. The gardens were designed to represent harmony and order, the ideals of the Renaissance, and to recall the virtues of

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

. Additionally, the symmetry of French gardens was a continuation of the Renaissance themes of harmony. French gardens were symmetrical and well manicured to represent order, and this idea of orderliness extended to French society at the time. Chenonceau02

Following his campaign in Italy in 1495, where he saw the gardens and castles of Naples, King Charles VIII brought Italian craftsmen and garden designers, such as

Pacello da Mercogliano Pacello da Mercogliano (c. 1455–1534) was a designer of gardens and hydraulic engineer, who is documented as working for Charles VIII at Amboise with the responsibility of bringing water from the Loire up to the garden parterres laid out to ...

, from Naples and ordered the construction of Italian-style gardens at his residence at the

Château d'Amboise The Château d'Amboise is a château in Amboise, located in the Indre-et-Loire ''département'' of the Loire Valley in France. Confiscated by the monarchy in the 15th century, it became a favoured royal residence and was extensively rebuilt. Kin ...

and at Château Gaillard, another private résidence in Amboise. His successor Henry II, who had also travelled to Italy and had met

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...

, created an Italian nearby at the Château de Blois. Beginning in 1528, King

Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...

created new gardens at the

Château de Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence ...

, which featured fountains, parterres, a forest of pine trees brought from

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...

, and the first artificial grotto in France. The

Château de Chenonceau The Château de Chenonceau () is a French château spanning the river Cher (river), Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire. It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley. The estate of Chen ...

had two gardens in the new style, one created for

Diane de Poitiers Diane de Poitiers (9 January 1500 – 25 April 1566) was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and famil ...

in 1551, and a second for Catherine de' Medici in 1560. In 1536 the architect Philibert de l'Orme, upon his return from Rome, created the gardens of the Château d'Anet following the Italian rules of proportion. The carefully prepared harmony of Anet, with its parterres and surfaces of water integrated with sections of greenery, became one of the earliest and most influential examples of the classic French garden.Bernard Jeannel, '' Le Nôtre'', Éd. Hazan, p. 17 Today, water remains a key garden design in the form of round pools and long ponds. While the gardens of the French Renaissance were much different in their spirit and appearance than those of the Middle Ages, they were still not integrated with the architecture of the châteaux, and were usually enclosed by walls. In French garden design, the chateau or home was supposed to be the visual focal point. The different parts of the gardens were not harmoniously joined together, and they were often placed on difficult sites chosen for terrain easy to defend, rather than for beauty. All this was to change in the middle of the 17th century with the development of the first real garden ''à la française''.

Vaux-le-Vicomte

The first important garden ''à la française'' was the Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, created for Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances to

, beginning in 1656. Fouquet commissioned Louis Le Vau to design the chateau, Charles Le Brun to design statues for the garden, and André Le Nôtre to create the gardens. It was for the first time that the garden and the chateau were perfectly integrated. A grand perspective of 1500 meters extended from the foot of the chateau to the statue of the

Farnese Hercules The ''Farnese Hercules'' ( it, Ercole Farnese) is an ancient statue of Hercules, probably an enlarged copy made in the early third century AD and signed by Glykon, who is otherwise unknown; the name is Greek but he may have worked in Rome. Like ...

, and the space was filled with parterres of evergreen shrubs in ornamental patterns, bordered by coloured sand, and the alleys were decorated at regular intervals by statues, basins, fountains, and carefully sculpted topiaries. "The symmetry attained at Vaux achieved a degree of perfection and unity rarely equalled in the art of classic gardens. The chateau is at the center of this strict spatial organization, which symbolizes power and success."

Gardens of Versailles

The

, created by André Le Nôtre between 1662 and 1700, were the greatest achievement of the garden ''à la française''. They were the largest gardens in Europe, with an area of 15,000 hectares, and were laid out on an east–west axis followed the course of the sun: the sun rose over the Court of Honor, lit the Marble Court, crossed the Chateau and lit the bedroom of the King, and set at the end of the Grand Canal, reflected in the mirrors of the Hall of Mirrors. In contrast with the grand perspectives, reaching to the horizon, the garden was full of surprises – fountains, small gardens filled with statuary, which provided a more human scale and intimate spaces. The central symbol of the garden was the sun; the emblem of

, illustrated by the statue of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

in the central fountain of the garden. "The views and perspectives, to and from the palace, continued to infinity. The king ruled over nature, recreating in the garden not only his domination of his territories, but over the court and his subjects."

Decline

André Le Nôtre died in 1700, but his pupils and his ideas continued to dominate the design of gardens in France through the reign of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

. His nephew,

Claude Desgots Claude Desgots (or Desgotz; c. 1658 – 1732) was a French architect and landscape architect, who designed French formal gardens in France and England. He worked with and was strongly influenced by André Le Nôtre, the designer of the gardens at ...

, created the garden at Château de Bagnolet ( Seine-Saint-Denis) for

Philippe II, Duke of Orléans Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (Philippe Charles; 2 August 1674 – 2 December 1723), was a French prince, soldier, and statesman who served as Regent of the Kingdom of France from 1715 to 1723. He is referred to in French as ''le Régent''. H ...

(1717) and at Champs ( Seine-et-Marne), and another relative, , created gardens for Madame de Pompadour at Crécy (

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Hauts-de-Seine) in 1748–50. The major inspiration for gardens continued to be architecture, rather than nature – the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel designed elements of the gardens at Versailles, Choisy (Val-de-Marne), and

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with ...

. Nonetheless, a few variations in the strict geometry of the garden ''à la française'' began to appear. Elaborate parterres of broderies, with their curves and counter-curves, were replaced by parterres of grass bordered with flowerbeds, which were easier to maintain. Circles became ovals, called rotules, with alleys radiating outward in the shape of an 'x', and irregular octagon shapes appeared. Gardens began to follow the natural landscape, rather than moving earth to shape the ground into artificial terraces. Limited colors were available at the time as well. Traditionally, French gardens included blue, pink, white, and mauve. The middle of the 18th century saw spread in popularity of the new

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

, created by British aristocrats and landowners, and the Chinese style, brought to France by Jesuit priests from the Court of the Emperor of China. These styles rejected symmetry in favor of nature and rustic scenes and brought an end to the reign of the symmetrical garden ''à la française''. In many French parks and estates, the garden closest to the house was kept in the traditional ''à la française'' style, but the rest of the park was transformed into the new style, called variously ''jardin à l'anglaise'' (the English garden), "anglo-chinois", ''exotiques'', or "pittoresques". This marked the end of the age of the garden ''à la française'' and the arrival in France of the ''jardin paysager'', or

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

, which was inspired not by architecture but by painting, literature and philosophy.

Theorists and gardeners

Jacques Boyceau, sieur de la Barauderie (c. 1560–1633) the superintendent of royal gardens under

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crow ...

, became the first theorist of the new French style. His book, ''Traité du jardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art. Ensemble divers desseins de parterres, pelouzes, bosquets et autres ornements'' was published after his death in 1638. Its sixty-one engravings of designs for parterres and bosquets made it a style book for gardens, which influenced the design the Palais du Luxembourg, the

Jardin des Tuileries The Tuileries Garden (french: Jardin des Tuileries, ) is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace ...

, and the gardens of Saint Germain-en-Laye.

Claude Mollet Claude Mollet (ca. 1564 – shortly before 1649), ''premier jardinier du Roy'' — first gardener to three French kings, Henri IV, Louis XIII and the young Louis XIV — was a member of the Mollet dynasty of French garden designers in t ...

(ca 1564-shortly before 1649), was the chief gardener of three French kings: Henry IV,

, and the young

. His father was

head gardener A head gardener is an individual who manages all horticultural aspects of a property or garden, including staff and volunteers. The properties they manage include historic gardens and private estates, as well as amenity horticulture teams, for ex ...

at the Château d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed. His son was

André Mollet André Mollet (died before 16 June 1665) was a French garden designer, the son of Claude Mollet—gardener to three French kings—and the grandson of Jacques Mollet, gardener at the château d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introd ...

, who took the French style to the Netherlands, Sweden and England. André Le Nôtre (1613–1700) was the most important figure in the history of the French garden. The son of the gardener of

, he worked on the plans of Vaux-le-Vicomte, before becoming the chief gardener of Louis XIV between 1645 and 1700, and the designer of the

, the greatest garden project of the age. The gardens he created became the symbols of French grandeur and rationality, setting the style for European gardens until the arrival of the

English landscape park The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

in the 18th century. Joseph-Antoine Dezallier d'Argenville (1680–1765) wrote ''Théorie et traité de jardinage'', laid out the principles of the garden ''à la française'', and included drawings and designs of gardens and parterres. It was reprinted many times, and was found in the libraries of aristocrats across Europe.

Principles

Jacques Boyceau de La Barauderie wrote in 1638 in his ''Traité du jardinage, selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art'' that "the principal reason for the existence of a garden is the esthetic pleasure which it gives to the spectator." The form of the French garden was largely fixed by the middle of the 17th century. It had the following elements, which became typical of the formal French garden: * a geometric plan using the most recent discoveries of perspective and

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

* a terrace overlooking the garden, allowing the visitor to see all at once the entire garden. As the French landscape architect

Olivier de Serres Olivier de Serres (; 1539–1619) was a French author and soil scientist whose '' Théâtre d'Agriculture'' (1600) was the accepted textbook of French agriculture in the 17th century. Biography Serres was born in 1539 at Villeneuve-de-Berg, ...

wrote in 1600, "It is desirable that the gardens should be seen from above, either from the walls, or from terraces raised above the parterres."« Il est à souhaiter que les jardins soient regardés de haut en bas, soit depuis des bâtiments, soit depuis des terrasses rehaussées à l'entour des parterres »,

in ''Théatre d'architecture ou Mesnage des champs'', 1600, cité par Bernard Jeannel, ''Le Nôtre'', Éd. Hazan, p. 26 * all vegetation is constrained and directed to demonstrate the mastery of man over nature. Trees are planted in straight lines and carefully trimmed, and their tops are trimmed at a set height * the residence serves as the central point of the garden and its central ornament. No trees are planted close to the house; rather, the house is set apart by low parterres and trimmed bushes * a central axis, or perspective, perpendicular to the facade of the house, on the side opposite the front entrance. The axis extends either all the way to the horizon (Versailles) or to piece of statuary or architecture (Vaux-le-Vicomte). The axis faces either South (Vaux-le-Vicomte, Meudon) or east–west (Tuileries, Clagny, Trianon, Sceaux). The principal axis is composed of a lawn, or a basin of water, bordered by trees. The principal axis is crossed by one or more perpendicular perspectives and alleys * the most elaborate parterres, or planting beds, in the shape of squares, ovals, circles or scrolls, are placed in a regular and geometric order close to the house, to complement the architecture and to be seen from above from the reception rooms of the house * the parterres near the residence are filled with broderies, designs created with low boxwood to resemble the patterns of a carpet, and given a polychrome effect by plantings of flowers, or by colored brick, gravel or sand * farther from the house, the broderies are replaced with simpler parterres, filled with grass, and often containing fountains or basins of water. Beyond these, small carefully created groves of trees serve as an intermediary between the formal garden and the masses of trees of the park. "The perfect place for a stroll, these spaces present alleys, stars, circles, theaters of greenery, galleries, spaces for balls and for festivities." * bodies of water (canals, basins) serve as mirrors, doubling the size of the house or the trees * the garden is animated with '' jeux d'eau'' and pieces of sculpture, usually on mythological themes, which either underline or punctuate the perspectives, and mark the intersections of the axes, and by moving water in the form of cascades and fountains.

Colours, flowers and trees

Ornamental flowers were relatively rare in French gardens in the 17th century and there was a limited range of colours: blue, pink, white and mauve. Brighter colours (yellow, red, orange) would not arrive until about 1730, because of botanical discoveries from around the world brought to Europe. Bulbs of

tulips Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

and other exotic flowers came from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. An important ornamental feature in Versailles and other gardens was the topiary, a tree or bush carved into geometric or fantastic shapes, which were placed in rows along the main axes of the garden, alternating with statues and vases. At Versailles flower beds were found only at the Grand Trianon and in parterres on the north side of the palace. Flowers were usually brought from

, kept in pots, and changed three or four times a year. Palace records from 1686 show that the palace used 20,050 jonquil bulbs, 23000

cyclamen ''Cyclamen'' ( or ) is a genus of 23 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. ''Cyclamen'' species are native to Europe and the Mediterranean Basin east to the Caucasus and Iran, with one species in Somalia. They g ...

, and 1700

lily ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...

plants. Most of the trees at Versailles were taken from the forest; they included hornbeam, elm, linden, and beech trees. There were also chestnut trees from

and acacia trees. Large trees were dug up from the forests of

and Artois and transplanted to Versailles. Many died in transplanting and had to be regularly replaced. The trees in the park were trimmed both horizontally and flattened at the top, giving them the desired geometric form. Only in the 18th century were they allowed to grow freely.

Parterres de broderie

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte IMG 9307a (5827552005)

The ''parterres de broderie'' (from the French french: broderie meaning 'embroidery') is the typical form of French garden design of the Baroque. It is characterised by a symmetrical layout of the flower beds and sheared box hedging to form ornamental patterns known as broderie. Even the arrangement of the flowers is designed to create a harmonious interplay of colours. Frequently found in French Baroque gardens are water gardens, cascades, grottos and statues. Further away from the country house, stately home, chateau or '' schloss'' the parterre transitions into the bosquets. Well known examples are the gardens at the Palace of Versailles in France and the Palace of Augustusburg at Brühl, near Cologne in Germany, which have achieved UNESCO World Heritage status. As fashions changed, many parterres de broderie of stately homes had to give way in the 19th century to

s and have not been reinstated.

Architecture

The designers of the French garden saw their work as a branch of architecture, which simply extended the space of the building to the space outside the walls, and ordered nature according to the rules of geometry, optics and perspective. Gardens were designed like buildings, with a succession of rooms which a visitor could pass through following an established route, hallways, and vestibules with adjoining chambers. They used the language of architecture in their plans; the spaces were referred to as ''salles'', ''chambres'' and ''théâtres'' of greenery. The "walls" were composed of hedges, and "stairways" of water. On the ground were ''tapis'', or carpets, of grass, ''brodés'', or embroidered, with plants, and the trees were formed into ''rideaux'', or curtains, along the alleys. Just as architects installed systems of water into the chateaux, they laid out elaborate hydraulic systems to supply the fountains and basins of the garden. Long basins full of water replaced mirrors, and the water from fountains replaced chandeliers. In the bosquet du Marais in the gardens of Versailles, André Le Nôtre placed tables of white and red marble for serving meals. The flowing water in the basins and fountains imitated water pouring into carafes and crystal glasses.Jean-Marie Constant, ''Une nature domptée sur ordre du Roi Soleil'' in ''Historia'', n° 7/8, 2000, p. 39 The dominant role of architecture in the garden did not change until the 18th century, when the English garden arrived in Europe and the inspiration for gardens began to come not from architecture but from romantic painting.

Theatre

The garden ''à la française'' was often used as a setting for plays, spectacles, concerts, and displays of

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

. In 1664, Louis XIV celebrated a six-day festival in the gardens, with cavalcades, comedies, ballets, and fireworks. Gardens of Versailles included a theatre of water, decorated with fountains and statues of the infancy of the gods (destroyed between 1770 and 1780). Full-size ships were constructed for sailing on the Grand Canal, and the garden had an open-air ballroom surrounded by trees; a water organ, a labyrinth, and a grotto.

Perspective

The architects of the garden ''à la française'' did not stop at applying the rules of geometry and perspective to their work. In the first published treatises on gardens, in the 17th century, they devoted chapters to the subject of how to correct or improve perspective, usually to create the illusion of greater distance. This was often done by having alleys become narrower, or having rows of trees that converged, or were trimmed so that they became gradually shorter, as they went farther away from the centre of the garden or from the house. This created the illusion that the perspective was longer and that the garden was larger than it actually was. Another trick used by French garden designers was the

ha-ha A ha-ha (french: hâ-hâ or ), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view ...

(fr: ''saut de loup''). This was a method used to conceal fences which crossed long alleys or perspectives. A deep and wide trench with vertical wall of stone on one side was dug wherever a fence crossed a view, or a fence was placed in bottom of the trench, so that it was invisible to the viewer. As gardens became more and more ambitious and elaborate through the 17th century, the garden no longer served as a decoration for the chateau. At Chantilly and at Saint-Germain, the chateau became a decorative element of the much larger garden.

Technologies

The appearance of the French garden in the 17th and 18th centuries was a result of the development of several new technologies. The first was géoplastie, the science of moving large amounts of earth. This science had several technological developments. This science had come from the military, following the introduction of cannon and modern siege warfare, when they were required to dig trenches and build walls and earth fortifications quickly. This led to the development of baskets for carrying earth on the back, wheelbarrows, carts and wagons. Andre LeNotre adapted these methods to build the level terraces, and to dig canals and basins on a grand scale. Pierre-denis-martin-view-of-the-marly-machine-and-the-aqueduct-at-louveciennes-1722

Pierre-denis-martin-view-of-the-marly-machine-and-the-aqueduct-at-louveciennes-1722

A second development was in hydrology, bringing water to the gardens for the irrigation of the plants and for use in the many fountains. This development was not fully successful at Versailles, which was on a plateau; even with 221 pumps and a system of canals bringing water from the Seine, and the construction in 1681 of a huge pumping machine, the Machine de Marly, there was still not enough water pressure for all the fountains of Versailles to be turned on at once. '' Fontainiers'' were placed along the routes of the King's promenades, and turned on the fountains at each site just before he arrived. A related development took place in hydroplasie, the art and science of shaping water into different shapes as it came out the fountain. The shape of the water depended upon the force of the water and the shape of the nozzle. New forms created through this art were named ''tulipe'' (the tulip), ''double gerbe'' (the double sheaf), ''Girandole''(centerpiece) ''candélabre'' (candelabra), and ''corbeille'' (bouquet), ''La Boule en l'air'' (Ball in the air), and ''L'Evantail'' (the fan). This art was closely associated with the

of the time, which tried to achieve similar effects with fire instead of water. Both the fountains and fireworks were often accompanied by music, and were designed to show how nature (water and fire) could be shaped by the will of man. Another important development was in

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

, in the ability to raise plants from warmer climates in the northern European climate by protecting them inside buildings and bringing them outdoors in pots. The first orangeries were built in France in the 16th century following the introduction of the orange tree after the Italian Wars. The Versailles Orangerie had walls five meters thick, with a double wall that maintains temperatures in winter between . Today it can shelter 1055 trees.

List

Predecessors in the Renaissance Style

* Château d'Anet (1536) *

Château de Villandry The Château de Villandry is a grand country house located in Villandry, in the ''département'' of Indre-et-Loire, France. It is especially known for its beautiful gardens. History The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as ' ...

(1536, destroyed in the 19th century and recreated beginning in 1906) *

Chateau Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence f ...

(1522–1540) *

, gardens of

and Catherine de Medici (1559–1570)

Gardens designed by André Le NôtreAccording to the chronology of Yves-Marie Allian, Janine Christiany, ''L'art des jardins in Europe'', pg. 612

* Vaux-le-Vicomte (1658–1661) * Château de Versailles (1662–1700) * Château de Chantilly (1663–1684) *

(1645–1685) * Château de Saint-Cloud (1664–65) * Gardens of the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, f ...

(1664) * Grand Canal of

(1668–1669) * Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1669–1673) * Parc de Sceaux (1670) * Château de Dampierre (1673–1783) * Grand Trianon at Versailles (1687–1688) *

Château de Clagny The Château de Clagny was a French country house that stood northeast of the Château de Versailles; it was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart for Madame de Montespan between 1674 and 1680. Although among the most important of the private r ...

(1674–1680) * Château de Meudon * Château de Cordès (1695) * *

Château de Pontchartrain The Château de Pontchartrain is mainly in the municipality of Jouars-Pontchartrain within Yvelines, in the west of the Île de France region of France. The west end of its domain (a throwback term for grounds equivalent to demesne: a personal ...

Gardens attributed to André Le Nôtre

Château du Raincy The Château du Raincy was constructed between 1643 and 1650 by Jacques Bordier, ''intendant des finances'', on the site of a Benedictine priory on the road from Paris to Meaux, in the present-day commune of Le Raincy in the Seine-Saint-Denis depa ...

* * *

Château de Courances The Château de Courances () at Courances, Essonne is a French château built in approximately 1630. The house and gardens are open to the public. House In 1552, Côme Clausse, a notary and royal secretary to the King, acquired from the Lapite ...

* Château de Castries * Castle of Racconigi

Later gardens

* Château de Breteuil (1730–1784)

19th–21st century

* Jardin de la Magalone, Marseille, garden by Eduard Andre, 1891. * Nemours Mansion and Gardens – du Pont estate, early 20th century. * Pavillon de Galon in Cucuron, created in 2004

Gardens outside France

Austria

* Mirabell Palace in Salzburg * Belvedere Palace in Vienna (designed by Dominique Girard) * Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (designed by Jean Trehet) *

Augarten The Augarten is a public park of 52.2 hectares (129 acres) situated in the Leopoldstadt, the second district of Vienna, Austria. It contains the city's oldest Baroque park. In the north-west and north-east it borders (since 1900) on the 20th ...

in Vienna * Parc of Schloss Hof in Engelhartstetten, Lower Austria

Czech Republic

Vrtba Garden The Vrtba Garden ( cs, Vrtbovská zahrada) in Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to ...

, Prague (1720s) * Gardens of the

Wallenstein Palace Wallenstein Palace ( cs, Valdštejnský palác) is a Baroque palace in Malá Strana, Prague, that served as a residence for Imperial Generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein and now houses the Senate of the Czech Republic. History The original ...

in Prague

England

* Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (1705–1724) * The Parterre, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire (1870s)

Germany

* Schwetzingen Palace in Schwetzingen, Baden-Württemberg *

Weikersheim Castle Weikersheim Palace (Schloss Weikersheim) is a palace in Weikersheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a medieval seat and later a Renaissance residence of the princely House of Hohenlohe. History The castle was built in the 12th century as ...

in Weikersheim, Baden-Württemberg * Ludwigsburg Palace near Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg * Gardens of the Würzburg Residence in Würzburg, Bavaria *

Schleissheim Palace The Schleißheim Palace (german: Schloss Schleißheim) comprises three individual palaces in a grand Baroque park in the village of Oberschleißheim, a suburb of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The palace was a summer residence of the Bavarian ruler ...

in Munich, Bavaria * Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Bavaria *

Karlsaue The Karlsaue Park is a public and inner-city park of in Kassel (Northern Hesse, Germany). It was redesigned as a landscape garden in 1785 and consists of a mixture of visible Baroque garden elements and arranged “natural areas”. Location ...

, Kassel, Hesse (built until 1785) * French Garden, Celle in Celle, Lower Saxony * Herrenhausen Gardens, Hanover, Lower Saxony (1676–1680) *

Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces, Brühl The Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces form a historical building complex in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The buildings are connected by the spacious gardens and trees of the Schlosspark. Built in the early 18th century, the palac ...

Brühl (Rhineland) Brühl () is a town in the Rhineland, Germany. It is located in the district of Rhine-Erft, 20 km south of the Cologne city center and at the edge of the Rhineland Nature Park, a famous nature reserve. History Brühl received its town p ...

, North Rhine-Westphalia * French garden of Schloss Benrath in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia

Italy

* Royal Palace of Caserta near Napoli *

Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi The Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi (Italian: "The hunting residence of Stupinigi") is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy in northern Italy, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. Built as a royal hunting lodge in the ea ...

Palace, Piedmont * Racconigi Palace, Piedmont (1755)

Netherlands

* Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, Gelderland

Poland

* Parc of

Nieborów Palace Nieborów Palace ( pl, Pałac w Nieborowie) is an aristocratic residence located in the village of Nieborów in Poland. Built in the 17th century by one of the greatest Baroque architects, the Dutchman Tylman van Gameren, the building belongs t ...

, Łódź Voivodeship (designed by Tylman van Gameren) * Branicki Palace, Białystok, Podlaskie Voivodeship (1737–1771)

Russia

* Peterhof Gardens, St. Petersburg (1714–1725) * Summer Garden, St. Petersburg (1712–1725) * Tsarskoe Selo Old Garden in

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

(1717–1720) * Kuskovo Estate, Moscow (1750–1780) * Oranienbaum Palace and Garden, west of St. Petersburg

Spain

* Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso in San Ildefonso, Segovia

Sweden

* Drottningholm Palace gardens outside

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

Notes

References

* Yves-Marie Allain and Janine Christiany, ''L'art des jardins en Europe'', Citadelles et Mazenod, Paris, 2006 * Claude Wenzler, ''Architecture du jardin'', Editions Ouest-France, 2003 * Lucia Impelluso, ''Jardins, potagers et labyrinthes'', Hazan, Paris, 2007. * Philippe Prevot, ''Histoire des jardins'', Editions Sud Ouest, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:French Formal Garden Ancien Régime French architecture Gardens in France