Désert de Retz

The Désert de Retz is a historical park in the style of the jardin anglo- chinois at Chambourcy in the French department of Yvelines. It was established in the late 18th century by the French aristocrat François Nicolas Henri Racine de Monville ( 1734-1797 ). Under the name Désert (literally "wilderness" ) understood the garden creator a secluded place of private retreat.

Description

The region enclosed by a wall park is located on the territory of the municipality Chambourcy on the border of the forest of Marly. It is part of an agricultural material of forty acres. The park was characterized by initially 17 (possibly 20) of follies, ten of which exist. The structures that can be described as follies, refer to antique models, or other exotic designs. So there is a ice house in the shape of an Egyptian pyramid, an obelisk and a temple was dedicated to the god Pan. Likewise, there was a Chinese pavilion, which no longer exists today. The most important building is the former home of Monville, which has the form of a twenty-five meter high stump of a broken antique column and represents an artificial ruin. It has a diameter of fifteen meters and contained three, connected by a spiral staircase, luxuriously appointed living spaces.

History

Monville bought in 1774 by Joseph Antoine Basire a house with the surrounding plot of 30 acres. Subsequently, he enlarged his estate on 38 acres in 1785. Founded in 1776 maison chinoise ( " Chinese House " ) served as temporary accommodation, until 1781 the largest building of La Colonne ( " The column " ) was completed. When planning Monville was supported by the architect Nicolas François Barbier.

In July 1792 Monville the Désert sold along with its two Paris hotels to the Englishman Lewis Disney Ffytche. This sold the land 1793. 1811 acquired Lebigre Beaurepaire the park, with whom he knew what to do, so Ffytche the estate bought back in 1816. His grandson Auguste Guilaume Hilary took it in 1824 in possession and sold it in 1827 to Alexandre Marie Denis, notary in Saint- Germain -en- Laye. He sold in 1839 to Jean -François Bayard, a nephew of Eugène Scribe. The Bayard's widow left it in 1856 Frédéric Passy, whose son Pierre einrichtete a chicken farm. 1936 forced him financial difficulties, the property on which he was born to sell.

The buyer was Georges Courtois, who acquired it as an agent for a company called New Mountain. Before work could be started in order to preserve the Désert from destruction, was on the new owner. The architect Jean -Charles Moreux strove for the increasingly deteriorating condition of the structures. 1938 and finally in 1941 the Désert was made against the will of the owner company listed building.

The Minister of Culture André Malraux to the National Assembly to move the adoption of a law that created the conditions to rescue the Désert succeeded. From 1973 to 1979 carried out first securing work. In 1981, the estate became the Societe Civile du Désert de Retz. A portion of the property was used as a golf course since 1991. A storm caused severe damage in 1999 on trees. The end of 2007 the congregation purchased the Chambourcy still about 20 -hectare plot of land for a symbolic price. At a ceremony on 24 September 2009, the reopening of the park by the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand. The park can be visited for safety by appointment only.

Structures

The largest building is designed as a habitable artificial ruin residence Monvilles, La Colonne. It contains three stories in his mind and equipped with precious furniture. Access to the park was made by a collection of artificial rocks that formed a cave. Nearby there was a ice house, above the pyramid was built. Furthermore, the existed built of teak at a pond Chinese house (destroyed), the Temple of Pan, an obelisk, a monument and an open-air stage with a mur de scène.

Apparently originally present and thus no Gartenfolly was the ruin of the Église gothique ( "Gothic Church "), a former village church. Commercial buildings, such as heated greenhouses and an orangery, allowed Monville thought the culture of a variety of rare plants, a model farm was for agricultural research and a kitchen garden served its own supply. The " Tartarenzelt " was reconstructed in 1989.

Contemporary engravings found in Georges Louis Le Rouge in his collection Jardins anglo- chinois à la mode (1776-1787) and Alexandre de Laborde in Nouveaux Jardins de la France (1808 ). Among the famous visitors of the park included, among others, the Swedish King Gustav III. and the American president Thomas Jefferson.

Garden Historical classification

The Désert de Retz is one of the major continental European representatives of the jardin anglo- chinois, a variety of the English landscape garden, which is characterized by dramatic formations ( rocks, caves, waterfalls ) and an equipment marked with idiosyncratic and strange buildings. The underlying romantic landscape concept is based on a melodramatic mood, the ideas of a - wakes erhabenenen past - supposedly. The well- furnished residential house La Colonne allowed the owner of the Désert a comfortable life in the midst of his garden empire, which can be interpreted as a mixture of ideal landscape and place of escapism.

Similar gardens are the Park of Ermenonville of the French nobles René Louis de Girardin, who also has a Désert mentioned range, also the Polish Arkadia Princess Helena Radziwill and Woerlitzer Park of Prince Franz of Anhalt. Model for the romantic landscape designs with respect to antiquity, the park of Stourhead, led by the banker Henry Hoare. The contemporary interest in exotic facilities elements was promoted by the publications of William Chambers.

The Désert de Retz was advised a long time forgotten. Today, the park is the subject of garden history research. Its restoration was begun by Olivier Choppin de Janvry with the Société Civile du Désert de Retz.