Jardin du Luxembourg

The Jardin du Luxembourg is a former royal, today government palace gardens in Paris's Latin Quarter ( 6th arrondissement ) with an area of ​​26 hectares. The plant belongs to the Palais du Luxembourg, where the Senate meets, the second chamber of the French Parliament.

The Jardin du Luxembourg is bordered on the north by the eponymous palace, the smaller auxiliary lock Petit Palais, the Senate president serves as the official residence, the Orangerie and the Musée du Luxembourg, and to the east of the Ecole des Mines. It is divided into two areas: in the environment of the castle are strictly geometric, since the beginning of the 17th century, suggestive of the classical French garden art flower beds and terraces, west and southwest of it to a later date in the style of an English landscape gardens free landscaped areas.

Recreational

The park, especially in the Parisian families enjoying the students of nearby universities and joggers popularity, offers many opportunities for recreational activities and sports. In the southwest area, it resembles an amusement park. Here are the smaller children's housed in a close-knit stone miniature theater Guignol called puppet theater, which dates back to the year 1881, an old, designed by Charles Garnier and besungenes of Rilke children's carousel and ponies for riding games and carriage rides available, the larger an adventure playground. There are also tennis and basketball courts, as well as a system for the Jeu de Paume, a game with the palm of the hand, a forerunner of the tennis game. There is a covered chess - court, Boulodrome and two coffee gardens. Before the garden facade of the castle there is a pool of water, sailing in the traditional homemade or rented model boats in the wind. Open-air concerts are held under a bandstand at the main entrance on the Boulevard Saint -Michel. There, the grids are also organized photo exhibitions regularly on the outside.

In the extreme southwestern tip of the garden is the - after enrollment - anyone open to beekeepers school and the carefully cherished orchard with its trellises. The products of the royal garden one day be issued annually in the fall in the Orangery and offered for sale.

History

The garden was designed from the year 1611 or 1612 on behalf of Marie de Medici, originating from Italy widow of King Henry IV for her then far outside the city limits arising country castle. At least to this lay partly the plans of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, where Marie de Medici had grown up, is based. Although the south wing of the palace and the adjoining garden in the 19th century experienced significant changes, they have a light, Italian flair preserved, which underline the planted palm trees in boxes.

The original garden already had large stands of trees, flower beds and water basins for which power 1613-1624 which was built from near Rungis upcoming aqueduct of Arcueil. Also the front of the garden facade around the central pool of water against south-facing horseshoe-shaped ramp with their elevated terraces existed in similar form at the beginning of the 17th century, received its marble statues, including the statue of Queen Marie de Medici, but only in the 19th century. The park harbors numerous other statues and works of art, including a copy of the Statue of Liberty by Bartholdi.

After the garden was enlarged in 1617 by replacing a part of the walled monastery grounds of the Carthusians, was Louis XIV, grandson of Mary of Medici, complement the horseshoe ramp through the magnificent perspective of the Avenue de l' Observatoire, the views of the former here specified in Paris prime meridian passes up to the Paris Observatory. In the 17th century, the park attracted a wider audience. ( Sauval noted in 1650 that he was " sometimes publicly, sometimes not "). In the 18th century the garden was a popular Promenadenort for writers: Here indulged like Jean -Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot.

Over time, the garden area underwent several more changes: in 1782 by the then owner, the Comte de Provence, brother of Louis XVI. and later King Louis XVIII. amputated at six hectares ( to finance the restoration of the castle ), he was in the Revolution at the confiscation of the Carthusian Monastery remaining to date ownership increased again in 1865 under Napoleon III. and his prefect Georges- Eugène Haussmann severely curtailed by the construction of the rue Auguste Comte and of houses to the east and south. This concerned, among other things, by Guy de Maupassant especially valued grounds of the nursery ( Pépinière ) and the Botanical Gardens. Five petitions protesting citizens, one of them with the high for that time of 12,000 signatures, were in vain.

Fountain

• The central pond and fountain and the state for the distribution of miniature sailing boats is a popular meeting place for the children.
• The Fontaine Médicis (1620 ), Salomon de Brosse attributed, is a grotto -like Nymphaeum. It was added in 1864 as part of the routing of the rue de Médicis by Alphonse de Gisors to its current location, remodeled and fitted with statues (1866 ) by Auguste Ottin.
• The Fontaine du Regard was transferred at the direction of Jean Chalgrin of the former Carrefour Saint- Placide (now rue de Rennes ) to the back of the Fontaine Médicis. The elegant marble relief of Leda and the Swan (1807 ) in the style of Neo Renaissance by Achille Valois, the two on the skew of the pediment resting Water Nymphs (1864 ) by Jean -Baptiste Klagmann.

Art Works (selection)

• From the 16th century: The victory of David over Goliath and Nymph, two of the ancient marble sculptures modeled on high pillars ( on both sides of the central water basin )

• Statues of French queens and famous women of France (1846-1850), by Auguste Ottin, Augustin Dumont, Jean -Baptiste Klagmann, Jean -Jacques Feuchère and other artists ( horseshoe ramp)

• Velleda (1839-1844) by Hippolyte Maindron from the novel by Chateaubriand, one of the main sculptural works of the Romantic
• The Dancing Faun ( 1851) by Eugène Lequesne

• Murg (1895 ) by Théophile Bouillon ( north east )
• Lecomte de l' Isle ( 1898) with a goddess of fame, by Denys Puech ( in the eastern area )
• George Sand (1905 ) by François Sicard ( idem )
• Stendhal, bronze medallion from Auguste Rodin by David d' Angers ( idem )
• Flaubert by Auguste Clésinger ( idem )
• The Mask Salesman (1883 ) with a remarkable base, showing the masks of Corot, Alexandre Dumas the Elder, Hector Berlioz, Carpeaux, Jean -Baptiste Faure, Eugène Delacroix, Honoré de Balzac and Barbey d' Aurevilly, Zacharie Astruc of
• Baudelaire Fix - Masseau ( in the southern area )
• La Comtesse de Ségur (1910 ) by Jean Boucher ( idem )
• Watteau (1896 ), Zinnbüste and allegory of youth in the style of Rococo painting of the 18th century by Henri Gauquiné ( idem )
• Eustache Le Sueur (1858 ) by Honoré Husson ( idem )
• José -Maria de Heredia Victor Ségoffin ( idem )
• Sainte -Beuve (1898 ) by Denys Puech ( idem )
• Chopin ( 1900) by Georges Dubois ( in the western area )
• Paul Verlaine of Rodo ( idem )
• Beethoven bronze bust of Antoine Bourdelle ( in the southwest corner )
• Delacroix ( 1890), War Memorial with allegories of time and fame and a Guardian Angel of the Arts, one of the major works in the Luxembourg Garden, by Jules Dalou ( to the north by the definition of the Petit Luxembourg)

The carousel

A poem by Rainer Maria Rilke