Post #4

What Different Influences did the Luxembourg Garden have?

This past summer I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Paris and stay in a hotel across from the Jardin Du Luxembourg. Every morning I would go running through the park and see the grand palace, the play ground for children and the amazing statues and water features. I could not help but be taken aback by these amazing features. The palace was first commissioned in 1611 by Marie de Medici who was married to King Henri IV and was from Italian descent. However, upon her husbands assassination she became a regent for her son King Louis XIII, but was unhappy with her residence of Palais du Louvre.

She decided she would build a palace and garden resembling the place that she loved, Florence. She based the palace off of the Palazzio Pitti and had the gardens resemble the gardens that she loved in Florence, the Boboli Gardens. In true Renaissance fashion the architect, Salomon de Brosse, constructed two terraces along the axis of the palace which lined up with circular basin and fountain, the Fontaine Medici.

However, in 1630 more land was purchased to enlarge the garden and the design was then entrusted to Jacques Boyceau de la Barauderie who had worked on many gardens in France, such as the Chateau Versailles. Jacques had a passion for the style of the formal french garden so he proceeded to design the gardens in lines, rectangles and squares with a fountain in the middle. After this expansion of the garden it was sold by King Louis XVIII and used by the Carthusian Monks and their monastery. There they built vineyards and nursery gardens, but after the French Revolution it was confiscated to be expanded upon.

The architect Jean Chalgrin, who constructed the Arc de Triomphe was assigned the task to renovate the garden. He decided to keep the original Medici fountain as well as some of the vineyards and nurseries put in by the monks along with a formal french style of gardening. He also made sure there was perspective down the whole garden that could be seen by the original terraces.

In 1848 the garden then started getting adorned with statues of queens and saints which you can sill see today. But after Napoleon III, Baron Haussman decided to change the whole layout of the park to accommodate for new roads and streets, due to the changes and expansion of Paris, and moved the Medici Fountain to where it is today. Garbriel Davioud was also commissioned to build the gates and fences and the English style garden houses and garden along the pathway running by the Medici fountain.

Overall there were many influence on the Luxembourg garden: from French, Italian and English along with a few modern features that have been added such as playground and tennis courts. However, no one can argue the beauty of this garden and the history you experience when walking through it today.

For more picture, and location of the garden see: famouswonders.com/jardin-du-luxembourg/

All pictures are my own.