Château de Villandry
Explore ma belle France
Villandry from Yesterday to Today:
The incredible story of a renaissance
A castle, of which one tower still remains today, was built on the built on the land of Colombiers. It was here that “la Paix de Colombiers” took place in 1189, during which Henry II Plantagenet, King of England, acknowledged his defeat to the French King Philippe Auguste.
During the Renaissance, Jean Breton, finance secretary of François I, acquired the domain in 1532 and had the castle erected on the site of the old fortress. Its architectural style, characteristic of the of the second Renaissance, prefigures the great castles of Île-de-France in the second half of the reign of François I, notably that of Fontainebleau.
In the 18th century, the castle became the property of Count Michel-Ange de Castellane, who provided the place with all the comforts in vogue at the time; numerous transformations were undertaken inside and outside the building.
A Family Affair
In the first few years following the purchase of Villandry, the couple devoted themselves to the restoration of the building, and little by little, the place regained its Renaissance soul.
Very quickly, Joachim Carvallo wished to give the castle back its 16th-century environment by restoring the Renaissance garden that existed before the English-style park. He embarked on this great adventure by recreating four levels of terracing to accommodate the decorative vegetable garden, the ornamental salons, and the water garden.
Today, Joachim and Ann's great-grandson, Henri Carvallo, manages and animates the château and gardens of Villandry.
16th Century
Archaeological work has determined that there was a decorative vegetable garden in the immediate vicinity of the castle. This conviction was reinforced by the discovery of a plan from the XVIIth century that attests the existence of two terraces: one cultivated as a vegetable garden and the other as an ornamental garden.
18th Century
Villandry becomes the property of the Count de Castellane who, from 1760, enlarged the Renaissance gardens. He then bought back from the villagers the plots of land that belonged to the church and created a very beautiful French garden in the purest classical style.
A third level of terrace was added to the vegetable garden and the ornamental garden, in which a water feature in the shape of a Louis XV mirror was created.
19th Century
Acquired by the financier Pierre-Laurent Hainguerlot, Villandry underwent a major transformation into an English-style park, particularly in vogue at the time. This type of garden also requires less rigorous maintenance than a French garden. The Hainguerlots sacrificed the existing gardens to create a landscape of sinuosities, curves, and clumps of trees and shrubs.
Evolution of a Historical Garden: Old and New
Between 1908 and 1918, the new owner of Villandry, Joachim Carvallo, devoted himself to the restoration of the Renaissance gardens. He considered that the castle, which he finished restoring to all its majesty, should have gardens in harmony with its architecture.
To do this, Carvallo gathered various archaeological and literary sources. Excavations in the gardens confirmed the location of the decorative vegetable garden. He then cross-referenced different literary sources, Les Plus Excellents Bâtiments de France and the Monasticon Gallicanum, which gave him a more exacting idea of Renaissance garden designs.
And today, his descendants continue the work of their ancestor. The gardens have been further extended with the creation in 2008 of the Garden of the Sun, on a fourth terrace, according to Joachim Carvallo in 1924.
The Six Gardens of Villandry
At the lowest terrace level, LE POTAGER DÉCORATIF, made up of nine squares of identical size but with different interior patterns, covers more than one hectare. These squares are planted with vegetables whose colors alternate, giving the viewer the illusion of a multi-colored checkerboard.
It hosts two crops per year: the spring crop, from March to June and the summer crop from July to October. We find about 40 species belonging to 8 botanical families.
Designed as an extension of the reception rooms located on the first floor of the castle, LES JARDINS D'ORNEMENT are spread out on the second terrace. Planted with high boxwoods and flowers with symbolic motifs and colors, they are composed of two green rooms on either side of the moat. Adjacent to the south facade of the castle is the first is the first room, composed of the garden of the crosses (Basque, Languedoc and of Malta) and the garden of love with evocative squares (tender, passionate, fickle, and tragic love). There are the vivid colors of tulips in spring and begonias in summer.
On this same terrace level, LE JARDIN DES SIMPLES is a utilitarian garden inherited from the Middle Ages. There are about thirty aromatic and medicinal plants cultivated there today.
A Cultural Practice: Organic Cultivation
Fifteen years ago, Villandry took the gamble of switching to to organic farming. The end of the use of chemical herbicides and insecticides led the team of gardeners to rethink its working methods, tools, and its organization.Fighting against diseases and dealing with climatic hazards means management of gardens requires constant attention and regularly raises new problems and new thoughts. Between preservation of heritage, contemporary concerns and maintenance of of biodiversity, the gardens of Villandry is a daily task.
In the face of pests, auxiliaries (parasitoids, predators, or nematodes) are introduced to replace chemical insecticides. Since the implementation of these these new practices, many insects have been reinstalled in the vegetable garden.
Many natural enemies of aphids or cabbage flies, for example, are now present and lead the counterattack by themselves.
In order to fight against foliage diseases caused by fungi, the natural defenses of roses, vines, and fruit trees are stimulated with treatments based on mineral elements, trace elements, essential oils, purins, and decoctions. Only boxwoods require a chemical fungicide treatment to fight against possible diseases.
Chemical fertilization has been replaced by an organic one dispensed in the form of compost in nitrogen granules, phosphorus, and potassium. To accompany this new practice, several changes have been implemented such as the switch to a classic spade. On the other hand, hoeing is more frequent in order to make watering more efficient.
The whole site is weeded in the old way with hand tools and the patience of the gardeners. For the lawns, "scarification," allows gardeners to remove the surplus of grass, and the use of verti-drain (soil aeration), has led to the beautification of the lawns without treatment and has strengthened their regrowth.
