Ha-Ha

A Ha -Ha or Aha is a design element of garden design. The Ha -Ha replaces a visible park wall or a fence. It is designed as dry, much below the ground level, dig deeper with steep slopes or when standing in a ditch, on one side the soil supporting or free- standing wall ( double Ha -Ha ). A brick-lined with steep walls Grenzgraben called saut -de- loup ( "wolf jump ").

In contrast to the defense, serving, water-filled moat prevents Ha -Ha, that animals and unwanted visitors out into the garden without obstruct the view to the outside. The neighboring landscape is thus visual part of the garden, an illusionist trick that enlarges the garden apparently.

Origin of the word

The term Ha -Ha explained by the onomatopoeic exclamation of astonishment. The Ha -Ha, not recognizable from a distance, only becomes visible when approaching kicking, stunned the visitor commented on the construction with " Aha! ". The word originally referred to both every obstacle that was blocking a path and a path which ended in a dead end. It then went on to the design element in the English landscape gardens of the 18th century on ( sunk fence, " lowered fence ").

History

Ha -Has been used since the early 18th century by horticulturists. Antoine -Joseph d' Dezallier Argenville explained in his contemporary popular La théorie et la pratique work you jardinage (Paris 1709; " The theory and practice of horticulture " ) the construction of a Ha - Has. Dezallier saw in the clear view of permitting wall opening an improvement over an iron grating ( a claire - voie, "clear view" ). A first sketch published Stephen Switzer. Horace Walpole wrote to the earliest realization of William Kent and Charles Bridgeman praised for the use of Ha - Has. The idea to create a wall opening in the enclosure of a garden through a barrier trench with a lowered obstacle, dated from the Baroque, but only came with the system of English-style gardens frequently used.

To put 1695 a French gardener in Levens Hall the first (yet small ) Ha -Ha in England. Today, public buildings are occasionally "discrete " with a Ha -Ha. Against unauthorized access, eg in the context of political demonstrations, protected ( Plenary Hall of the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag, country house Kiel)

Examples in Castle Gardens

In the Nymphenburg park in Munich four Ha -Has exist ( here traditionally " Aha " called ) as extensions of the large views and green valleys. More examples can be found in the park of Schloss Benrath in Dusseldorf and the Lower Rhine in the forest garden of Cleves. Also, the semicircular garden at the Karlsruhe castle is executed on the north and east sides by a Ha -Ha, here as a trench with the inside stuffed wall, separated from the subsequent Hardt forest. The Pillnitz Castle in Dresden Park facing west on a Ha -Ha. From the Parc de Bagatelle in Paris a Ha -Ha provides a view into the Bois de Boulogne.

On the southern edge of the Hermitage (Bayreuth ), there is still a sink area that separates as Haha since the 18th century the parkland of the subsequent fields. Landscape design terms are Ha -Has combined with other elements (such as point de vue, in fact, interrupted at the end of a line of sight by an invisible ditch, or, outside the garden standing, eyecatcher, one as an "eye catcher " 's Acting tower or single tree).

"Wolf Pit", saut -de- loup

Fully Walled wells before castles such as the Grand Trianon at Versailles or the city palace, the Hôtel de Sully in Paris are called saut -de- loup. The ditch, too wide to be skipped by a wolf ( by Michel Conan ), can range from a bridge spanning his ( Wolfsgrube ) or located at the end of an avenue or interrupt this to prevent in this way the entrance from the outside. Clarification of sauts -de- loup of the Ha -Has a little arbitrary.