Outstanding gardens
The “Outstanding Garden” label was created in 2003 on the initiative of the National Parks and Gardens Committee, which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture and Communication. The label is national and is allocated to old or modern, private or public gardens, whether or not they are listed as historical sites or monuments.
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Contemporary gardens
All recently-designed gardens are called contemporary. Some are the work of enlightened amateurs, drawing their inspiration from the gardens of France, Italy, Holland or China, reinterpreting atmospheres of other lands and transposing them on to indigenous plants. There are many examples throughout Lorraine, often women’s gardens or gardens belonging to couples, ephemeral works, reflection...
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Classical gardens
French gardens were designed to be admired from the chateau, the outlines providing a feeling of perfect unity and balance. There were two basic principles: axiality and symmetry. The component parts were structured plants (topiaries) and natural plants (copses then forest). Walkways were punctuated by statues and topiaries. The further one went from the chateau, the more nature took ove...
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Medieval-style gardens and ancient gardens
The medieval garden designed today from historical documents is inspired by two sources: the manuscripts and illuminations of the Middle Ages. Originally an enclosed area situated close to or within the walls of a fortified castle, abbey or monastery, the medieval garden could include constructed elements (benches, well, fountain); the plants grown were all wild or cultivated species known ...
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High-altitude gardens
The 1424m Vosges mountains display the typical features of a high-altitude garden: a climate characterized by widely varying temperatures, early and late frosts, snow in winter, poor soil, sloping terrain and difficult access. The outstanding examples prove that, despite nature’s hostility, gardens here can be absolutely magical.
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Terraced gardens
Terraced gardens are one of the original aspects of the 18th century in Lorraine. Unlike the narrow terraced gardens, which originated in Italy and were found in France until the beginning of the 17th century, Lorraine gardens have vast terraces and frontal stairways, which have a very strong visual impact.
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Botanical gardens
Invented during the Renaissance, a period of encyclopaedic curiosity, the first botanical gardens, which were managed by the universities, were created in France in 1593 in Montpellier and then in 1619 in Strasbourg.
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Picturesque gardens
A landscape is defined as picturesque when it is hilly, has varied aspects and textures and changing light conditions. Picturesque gardens began to spread in France from 1760 as a reaction against the classical gardens designed by Le Nôtre. Gardens celebrated a new relationship with nature, based on the idea of a possible harmony between nature and man.
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Nancy School gardens
The art of gardening was transformed with the emergence of Art Nouveau between 1890 an 1914. The enthusiasm for exotic species, the result of colonial and scientific expeditions towards the end of the 18th century, inspired not only lovers and designers of parks and gardens in Lorraine but also nurserymen, who developed new varieties of flowers by artificial pollination or hybridization.
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Outstanding trees
Up until the early 19th century, large trees had a mainly utilitarian role. Grown as a hedgerow, curtain or canopy, they provided shade close to buildings. With the advent of a more picturesque conception, trees came to be considered as outstanding components in their own right, due to their bearing, colour, vastness and origin: through trees, Asia, Africa and America came to our parks from...
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