Château de Villandry

Villandry Castle is a castle located 15 kilometers west of the city of Tours in France. The municipality is situated on the Cher and Villandry is the last community before its confluence with the Loire.

History

The predecessor of the castle, the fortress of Colombier from the 12th century, signed Henry II Plantagenet, King of England after his defeat by Philip II Auguste, King of France on July 4, 1189 the Peace of Colombier.

The present castle was built by Jean le Breton, Minister of Finance under Francis I. The Gothic fortress was demolished to 1532 to the foundations and the keep. The castle, one of the last built on the Loire Renaissance castles, was completed along with a large garden, 1536. Medieval elements such as decorative turrets and machicolated and Italian influence are almost completely. This simple, completely French style announces its roof shape the locks Anet, Fontainebleau and style of the time of Henry IV at.

1705 took over the coming from a Provencal family Marquis de Castellane, the castle and had it rebuilt after the comfort requirements of the 18th century. The garden was laid out as an English landscape garden. In 1906 the Castle of Joachim Carvallo - Adelmani, a chocolate factory and the rich American Ann Coleman was bought and restored. You could invest in accordance with the corrected Renaissance architecture of the castle gardens in the French style of the 16th century. Since 1920, the castle is open to the public. The current owner, Henri Carvallo, is the great grandson of Joachim Carvallo.

Gardens

The reconstructed according to old prints, maps and guidebooks garden gardens are on three levels. At the top is the water garden. Its water tank feeds the garden trenches, on the go in the castle ditches ( moats ).

Ornamental gardens

On the next lower level are ornamental gardens with ornamental flower beds of boxwood. The " Garden of Love " directly behind the castle is laid out in squares, which symbolize the tender, passionate, fickle and tragic love. It was created by Antonio Lozano and Javier de Winthuysen. Furthermore, there is a cloister garden and a music garden. 1970, a herb garden was created in 2008 a solar garden. Since 2009, the gardens are managed non-toxic.

Kitchen Garden

About the bottom layer extends the multi-colored kitchen garden, which consists of four squares. The arranged in a checkerboard pattern, drawn with book rimmed compartments vegetables of all kinds are merely ornamental. It can be found among others red cabbage, endive, leeks, beets, lettuce and chard. At the crossroads of the routes are fountains at the corners bowers of roses. Tapered cut in the form of pear trees were planted in the flower beds themselves. The planting of the squares is rotated each year to prevent soil depletion. This type of planting dates back to the Middle Ages. In monasteries vegetable beds were often arranged in geometric shapes and embellished with tall rose bushes. The fountains, gazebos and flower beds in Vill Andy on the other hand show the Italian influence on the art of gardening.

Importance

In their entirety, the gardens of Villandry are among the world's most original gardens and are subject to many considerations for horticultural history.

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