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A Brief History of
Bagatelle
by Jocelen Janon
In the eighteenth century the west part of the 'Bois de Boulogne',
near Paris, was an area where several members of the royal family
and their favourites used for the building of discreet and rural
hideouts, away from the court.
In 1720 The Duke of
Estree built the original house for his wife, this house was sold
in 1772 to the Comte of Artois, brother of Louis XVI, The King of
France.
At that time the
Duchesse d'Estree's house was in a ruinous condition and The Comte
of Artois, future Charles X, had to rebuild it entirely.
The Comte had accepted
from the Queen, Marie Antoinette, a wager of 100,000 livres that he
could not have his new building ready for a fete planned several
weeks later.
On 21st September 1777,
nine hundred men started the work: they worked day and night, by
the light of torches and encouraged by music.
Bagatelle was completed sixty-four days later on the 26th of
November.
The Comte then engaged Thomas Blaikie to work on the gardens
with the objective to create an 'Anglo-Chinese' garden which
was at the height of fashion at that time.
Thomas Blaikie described his arrival in Paris in his "Journal
of a Scottish Gardener".
"Monday, 21st December 1778, arrived in Paris. Having seen
Mr Belanger [the architect of Bagatelle], I examined the
grounds.
There is only some mediocre woodland.
He agreed to give me the number of men necessary to finish the
gardens in three years.
Wednesday, 30th December 1778. Began on the gardens of
Bagatelle, starting with the wood in front of the pavilion,
having cut the trees to open a lawn in company with M. Boras,
Inspecteur des Batiments, but he was surprised to see me plan
out the garden without a line!
He did not come back."
Thomas Blaikie achieved his work in two years and in 1780 the Comte
d'Artois gave a fete for the King, the Queen and the Court.
Bagatelle remained the property of The Comte d'Artois until the
French Revolution.
During the revolution and Napoleon's reign, Bagatelle's grounds
moved to the public domain, then became the property of Louis
Philippe.
Lord Seymour bought the
property from Louis Philippe in 1835 and the park became the
property of Lord Seymour's illegitimate son, Wallace.
Between 1855 and 1860 the park was extended to 24 Ha : Vare, a
renowned landscaper, redesigned the park in order to link the
oldest parts to the new ones.
 He
made of the property a typical Napoleon III's style park.
By 1860 the domain was
surrounded by the public part of the 'Bois de Boulogne', a forest
landscaped between 1853 and 1860 as a 'public promenade. After some
difficult negotiations the City of Paris bought the domain in 1905.
Paris established a plan wanting to create a park as
- A witness of the history and styles of the garden history of the
18th and 19th centuries
- A garden to
demonstrate gardening technics
- A garden to present
the newly created plants.
Forestier, the head of the parks and gardens in Paris, created
different gardens either to present a particular genus (roses,
irises, peonies, nympheas) or groups (perennials, climbers etc.)
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In the Irises Garden. |
These very formal gardens found an inspiration in different
styles: Art Deco, Jugenstil, hispano-arab...
These different gardens were integrated to the existing domain,
making it a very eclectic park covering three centuries of the
history of the garden.
 Meanwhile,
in the years 1900, in l'Haye les Roses, near Paris, the private
rosary created by Jules Gravereaux and drawn by E. Andre attracted
more and more people.
In
order to attract more visitors to the park of Bagatelle, J. C. N.
Forestier decided to design and build a rosary.
In
order to achieve this project as quickly as possible, he asked
Jules Gravereaux to be his scientific and technical advisor.
After a first rejected project (a rose amphitheatre, inspired by
Gravereaux's rose theatre in L'Haye les Roses); Forestier choose
to install the new garden at the South of the 'Orangerie'.
The
design presented a flat garden, very formal and structured, in
order to present the rose in all its states : bushes, climbers,
ramblers, growing on posts, chains etc.
Jules Gravereaux gave 1500 different roses in order to plant the
garden, which was officially opened on June 1907.
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The roseraie in 1910 - photo E.
Atget (copyright
Bibliotheque de France) |
The
garden is contained in an almost square rectangle divided in 43
beds. Two hemicycles on one side and two circle arks on the others
flank it
The
principal path of the garden is boarded by weeping standards roses
on pillars designed to guide the eye to the pergola.
From
the little Chinoiserie 'Kiosque de l'Imperatrice' (1), implanted on
the eastern hill, you can view the whole garden and the Seine valley
in the background.
Right
from the beginning the rosary goal was to present the best roses.
 Originally
the roses were organised by classes and groups in order to
facilitate their comparison and study.
Each
group was presented in a circle with a standard rose in the middle.
Each
rose is labelled with the name, the origin, class and year of introduction.
In 1937, the Seine
region bought the rosary at L'Haye les Roses and subsequently,
most of the species and old roses were moved from Bagatelle.
The role of the two
rosaries has been redefined: an old roses conservatory in L'Haye;
a rosary to show the evolution and the future of the rose in
Bagatelle.
Today, 1100 roses are
shown at Bagatelle. 20 % are old roses introduced before 1920:
Bagatelle is registered as a ' National collection of modern
roses".
The 'Concours de
roses de Bagatelle'.
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At the beginning
of the garden, Jules Gravereaux kept some of the central beds
of the garden in order to present the new rose creations.
Very quickly, to
answer to the demand and to add prestige to Bagatelle, the
garden welcomed the City of Paris International competition
for New Roses.
At that time 148
new roses were presented from 27 French breeders and 31 from
across the world.
To go there
:
Location :
Jardin de
Bagatelle
Bois de Boulogne
Route de Sèvres
75016 Paris.
Open from 10 am
to 6 pm.
Entry fees apply |
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<<< To see some
of the roses of the Bagatelle rose gardens, click on the
thumbnails. (2)
(1) Napoleon III's
Empress Eugenie .
(2) The roses's names
on these webpages are those displayed in the garden.
The Polish clematis 'Kacper' and 'Westfalenpark'
(Kordes - 1986) |