TheJardin du Luxembourg (French pronunciation:[ʒaʁdɛ̃dylyksɑ̃buʁ]), known in English as theLuxembourg Garden, colloquially referred to as theJardin du Sénat (Senate Garden), is located in the6th arrondissement of Paris,France. The creation of the garden began in 1612 whenMarie de' Medici, the widow of KingHenry IV, constructed theLuxembourg Palace as her new residence. The garden today is owned by theFrench Senate, which meets in the palace. It covers 23 hectares (56.8 acres) and is known for its lawns, tree-lined promenades, tennis courts, flowerbeds, model sailboats on its octagonal Grand Bassin, as well as picturesqueMedici Fountain, built in 1620.[1] The name Luxembourg comes from the Latin Mons Lucotitius, the name of the hill where the garden is located,[2] and locally the garden is informally called "le Luco".[3]
In 1611,Marie de' Medici, the widow ofHenry IV and the regent for the KingLouis XIII, decided to build a palace in imitation of thePitti Palace in her nativeFlorence. She purchased the Hôtel du Luxembourg (today thePetit Luxembourg) and began construction of the new palace. She commissionedSalomon de Brosse to build the palace and a fountain, which still exists. In 1612 she had 2,000elm trees planted; she directed a series of gardeners, most notablyTommaso Francini, to build a park in thestyle she had known as a child in Florence.[4] Francini planned two terraces with balustrades andparterres laid out along the axis of the château, aligned around a circular basin. He also built theMedici Fountain to the east of the palace as anymphaeum, an artificial grotto and fountain, without its present pond and statuary. The original garden was just eight hectares in size.[5]
In 1630 she bought additional land and enlarged the garden to thirty hectares, and entrusted the work toJacques Boyceau de la Barauderie, the intendant of the royalTuileries Garden and the earlygardens of Versailles. He was one of the early theorists of the new and more formalgarden à la française, and he laid out a series of squares along an east–west alley closed at the east end by the Medici Fountain, and a rectangle of parterres with broderies of flowers and hedges in front of the palace. In the center he placed an octagonal basin with a fountain, with a perspective toward what is now theParis Observatory.
Later monarchs largely neglected the garden. In 1780, the Comte de Provence, the futureLouis XVIII, sold the eastern part of the garden for real estate development. Following theFrench Revolution, however, the leaders of theFrench Directory expanded the garden to forty hectares by confiscating the land of the neighboring religious order of theCarthusian monks. The architectJean Chalgrin, the architect of theArc de Triomphe, took on the task of restoring the garden. He remade the Medici Fountain and laid out a long perspective from the palace to the observatory. He preserved the famous pepiniere, or nursery garden of the Carthusian order, and the old vineyards, and kept the garden in a formal French style.
During and after theJuly Monarchy, the park became the home of a large population of statues; first the queens and famous women of France, lined along the terraces; then, in 1880s and 1890s, monuments to writers and artists, a small-scale model byBartholdi of hisLiberty Enlightening the World (commonly known as theStatue of Liberty) and one modern sculpture byZadkine.
In 1865, during the reconstruction of Paris byNapoleon III, the rue de l'Abbé de l'Épée, (now rue Auguste Comte) was extended into the park, cutting off about seven hectares, including a large part of the old nursery garden. The building of new streets next to the park also required moving and rebuilding the Medici Fountain to its present location. The long basin of the fountain was added at this time, along with the statues at the foot of the fountain.
During this reconstruction, the chief architect of parks and promenades of Paris,Gabriel Davioud, under the leadership ofAdolphe Alphand, built new ornamental gates and fences around the park, and polychrome brick garden houses. He also transformed what remained of the old Chartreux nursery garden, at the south end of the park, into anEnglish garden with winding paths, and planted a fruit garden in the southwest corner. He kept the regular geometric pattern of the paths and alleys, but did create one diagonal alley near the Medici fountain, which opened a view of thePanthéon.
The garden in the late nineteenth century contained a marionette theater, a music kiosk, greenhouses, an apiary (or bee-house); an orangerie also used for displaying sculpture and modern art (used until the 1930s); a rose garden, the fruit orchard, and about seventy works of sculpture.[6]
The garden is largely devoted to a greenparterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and centred on a large octagonal basin of water, with a central jet of water; in it children sail model boats.[7] The garden is famed for its calm atmosphere. Surrounding thebassin on the raisedbalustradedterraces are a series of statues of former French queens, saints and copies after theantique. In the southwest corner, there is an orchard of apple and pear trees and thethéâtre des marionnettes (puppet theatre). The gardens include a large fenced-in playground for young children and their parents and a vintagecarousel. In addition, free musical performances are presented in a gazebo on the grounds and there is a small cafe restaurant nearby, under the trees, with both indoor and outdoor seating from which many people enjoy the music over a glass of wine. The orangerie displays art, photography and sculptures. The model boat pond inConservatory Water inCentral Park inManhattan, New York City, is loosely based on that of one in the Jardin du Luxembourg.[8][9]
TheÉcole nationale supérieure des Mines de Paris and theOdéon theatre stand next to the Luxembourg Garden.
The central axis of the garden is extended, beyond its wrought iron grill and gates opening to rue Auguste Comte, by the central esplanade of the rue de l'Observatoire, officially theJardin Marco Polo, where sculptures of the fourTimes of Day alternate with columns and culminate at the southern end with the 1874 "Fountain of the Observatory", also known as the "Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde" or the "Carpeaux Fountain", for its sculptures byJean-Baptiste Carpeaux. It was installed as part of the development of the avenue de l'Observatoire byGabriel Davioud in 1867.
The bronze fountain represents the work of four sculptors: Louis Vuillemot carved the garlands and festoons around the pedestal,Pierre Legrain carved thearmillary with interior globe and zodiac band; theanimalierEmmanuel Fremiet designed the eight horses, marine turtles and spouting fish. Most importantlyJean-Baptiste Carpeaux sculpted the four nude women supporting the globe, representing theFour Continents of classical iconography.
Open hours for the Luxembourg Garden depend on the month: opening between 7:30 and 8:15 am; closing at dusk between 4:45 and 9:45 pm.
The garden contains just over a hundred statues, monuments, and fountains, scattered throughout the grounds. Surrounding the central green space are twenty figures ofFrench queens and illustrious women standing on pedestals. They were commissioned byLouis-Philippe in 1848 and include:Anne of Austria,Anne of Brittany,Anne of France,Anne Marie Louise of Orléans,Bertha of Burgundy,Blanche of Castile,Clémence Isaure,Jeanne III of Navarre,Laure de Noves,Louise of Savoy,Margaret of Anjou,Margaret of Provence,Marguerite of Navarre,Marie de' Medici,Mary, Queen of Scots,Matilda, Duchess of Normandy, SaintBalthild, SaintClotilde, SaintGenevieve, andValentina Visconti.
Other sculpted work includes:
TheMedici Fountain (La fontaine Médicis) was built in 1630 byMarie de' Medici, the widow of KingHenry IV of France and regent of KingLouis XIII of France. It was designed byTommaso Francini, a Florentine fountain maker and hydraulic engineer who was brought from Florence to France by King Henry IV. It was in the form of agrotto, a popular feature of the Italian Renaissance garden. It fell into ruins during the 18th century, but in 1811, at the command ofNapoleon Bonaparte, the fountain was restored byJean Chalgrin, the architect of theArc de Triomphe. In 1864–66, the fountain was moved to its present location, centered on the east front of the Palais du Luxembourg. The long basin of water was built and flanked byplane trees, and the sculptures of the giantPolyphemus surprising the loversAcis and Galatea, by French classical sculptorAuguste Ottin, were added to the grotto's rockwork.[10]
Hidden behind the Medici Fountain is theFontaine de Léda, (1807), a wall fountain built during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte at the corner of the Rue du Regard andRue de Vaugirard, with a bas-relief sculpture depicting the legend ofLeda and the Swan byAchille Valois. When the original site was destroyed during the extension of the Rue de Rennes in 1856 byNapoleon III, the fountain was preserved and moved in 1866 to the Luxembourg Gardens and attached to the back of the Medici Fountain.[11]
The gardens are featured prominently inVictor Hugo's novelLes Misérables. It is here that the principal love story of the novel unfolds, as the charactersMarius Pontmercy andCosette first meet. Several scenes ofAndré Gide's novelThe Counterfeiters also take place in the gardens.
Henry James also uses the gardens, inThe Ambassadors, as the place in which his character Lambert Strether has an epiphany about his identity. The final scene ofWilliam Faulkner's novelSanctuary is set in the gardens.Patrick Modiano heard the news he had won the 2014Nobel Prize in Literature via a mobile phone call from his daughter while he was walking through Paris "just next to the Jardin du Luxembourg".[12]
Non-literary references include as the setting for a few episodes ofFrench in Action, the 10thJoe Dassin's 1976 studio albumLe Jardin du Luxembourg, the cover ofTame Impala's 2012 albumLonerism, the title of a song by the bandThe Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger and the gardens and palace being added as a mission in the video gameAssassin's Creed Unity.
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