Jardins du château de Chamerolles

A spirit of the Renaissance at the castle, wandering through fragrances and scents. Pomp, pleasure and utility are the vocations of the Renaissance man’s garden. Chamerolles is one such example and tells us about the importance of gardens in everyday life. Nothing remained of the Jardins de Chamerolles, they have been reinvented rather than recovered. The castle and the park were restored by the Département du Loiret and opened to the public again in 1992. On the basis of archive documents, the six parterres were laid out in their original pattern, following the line of the peripheral moat. Photo : D. Chauveau The current landscape follows the indications of XVIth century drawings, including those of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, one of the most famous architects of the time. Composed of six squares, the garden conforms to Renaissance treatises in every way. The new Renaissance ideas, Alberti’s treatise in particular, urged architects and entrepreneurs to aim beyond the actual building of a castle or a villa, bearing in mind the environment and the pleasure of strolling in gardens where beauty and elegance compete. Enclosed in arbour and wooden pergolas covered with vines, honeysuckle and old roses (which allows for walks in the shade), the six parterres each unveil a specific personality. Vegetables, fruits and spices required for the meals were provided by the two vegetable gardens. The maze and the “pré-haut” were favoured for conversation and games. For the eyes’ delight, the parterre de broderie, divided into lozenges, displays different geometrical shapes around an obelisk. A Renaissance gardener already mastered the art of sculpting thyme bushes… The far-end square, reserved for rare plants, was intended to keep the various botanical rarities discovered on the new continents and brought over to France, including plants from America and the Mediterranean Basin. The parterres are enclosed in a latticework and divided by a path to ensure their protection and preservation. The geometrical shapes assembled in each of the small gardens made picking for the kitchen easier but also, most importantly, allowed good observation of the different newly imported plants.