Jardin du Prieuré Notre Dame d'Orsan

Founded in the XIIth century, this priory was reconstructed in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. Thanks to the passionate care of two architects and a gardener, it has since 1993 recovered its gardens, now entirely redesigned in form, structure and symbolism as a free interpretation of medieval miniatures.
These gardens serve spiritual as well as terrestrial needs. Growing rare or common, ancient or more recent plants, the gardens are displayed in a structure making ample use of wood in picket fences, paling, arbour… The gardens are contained in an enclosed field around which the community’s buildings form a U shape, with the fourth side featuring a line of oaks. Placed at the very centre of the monastery, the green cloister stood as a space for prayer and meditation. Closed by a green gallery, it now has two lawn alleys separating four square vine plots, with a fountain at their intersection symbolising the source of the four rivers in Paradise.
Eight arbour arches lead from the cloister to the numerous adjoining gardens protected by chestnut hedges: the garden of simples, the flower bed, the apple orchard, the three enclosed orchards (cherry trees, Sorbus domestica and pear trees), the fruit tree labyrinth, the Jardin de Marie or rose garden, the high vegetable garden including a collection of cucurbitaceae, the pergola and the olive garden.
In 2007, the Prieuré Notre Dame d’Orsan has organized a number of events to celebrate the 900th anniversary of its foundation and 15th anniversary of the revival of its gardens.