Garden Marquessac

Marquessac Garden ( French: Jardins de Marqueyssac ) is a garden and park complex in the French commune of Vezac , located in the department of Dordogne (formerly the province of Perigord ) of the administrative region of Aquitaine .

Garden Marquessac
fr. Jardins de marqueyssac
basic information
Type of	Romantic park
Area	22 ha
Established	XVIII century (regular park) 1860 (romantic garden) 1996 (restoration)
marqueyssac.com
Location
A country	France
Region	Aquitaine
Garden Marquessac

The garden is included in the national list of “Outstanding Gardens of France” ( Jardin remarquable ).

Marquessac Garden is located on the territory of the estate of the same name ( chateau ), a privately owned family whose history dates back to the 17th century. Marquessac is one of the most beautiful romantic gardens of the 19th century.

The historical park of 22 hectares is located around the estate of the XVIII century. Initially, there was a classic French park , the device of which is attributed to a student of the famous Andre Lenotre . Between 1830 and 1840, the next owner, Julien Bessières, built a chapel and the main avenue of the park 100 meters long for horse riding. And already in the 1860s, the new owner of the estate began to plant boxwood in large quantities, adding later linden, cypress and pine tree , brought from Italy.

In addition to the park, over 6 kilometers of shady walking alleys are planted in the gardens, which are lined with 150,000 centuries-old boxwood, hand-cut. The gardens are decorated with belvedere , rockail , cascading waterfalls and green theaters .

In Marquessac, topiary craftsmen realized their original ideas on a box . The winding paths of the park are typical for planning gardens in France during the era of Napoleon III . The roundness of the shapes and the wavy height of the boxwoods give the Marquessac gardens lightness and romance, as well as harmony with the hills of the Dordogne river valley, forming a single whole with the surrounding countryside.

Located on a rocky spur, the park dominates the valley with steep slopes. Often, the gardens are called the Belvedere Dordogne , since from its 130 meter height the most beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding Perigorsk landscape open. The uniqueness of this “viewing platform” is that from here you can see the entire river valley with its castles and the beautiful French villages of Beinac-e-Kaznak , Castelnau-la-Chapelle , La Roque-Gageacque and the House .

The owner of the estate Marquessac had the honor to receive in his perigorsk estate, located on a steep cliff, the future Pope Pius X. In the gardens you can still see the place where the cardinal liked to speculate.

Since 1996, the “ hanging gardens ” of Marcessac (hanging since they rise above the Dordogne Valley) are open to visitors all year round.

During the summer holidays, in July and August, on Thursdays, night performances are called in the gardens, called "Marquessac by Candlelight", where free admission is open. On these evenings, the gardens are illuminated by a multitude of candles installed on all the park's alleys. The park has a café with soft drinks and light snacks.

In 2011, among all the tourist sites of Dordogne, the Marquessac gardens took the third place in terms of the number of visits, receiving 190,000 tourists ^[1] .