Jardins du Château de Jumilhac Gardens, Parks in Jumilhac le Grand

In the 17th century, the Marquis de Jumilhac wanted to modernise his castle and pull it out of its ancestral times. Present at the Cour de Versailles, he had to create gardens at the height of his rank ; they were 12 terraces which, remodelling the rocky spur used as a foundation for the castle, went down in steps to the Isle, running 45 m below.

These gardens were preserved until the dawn of the 20th century. Unfortunately, the hazards of the First World War were going to mishandle this titanic work to the point of seeing them gradually sold for the benefit of vegetable gardens, orchards or pieces of wheat, in the same way as the 120 orange trees in containers and even... the orangery ! Only the first two terraces which overlook the valley where the deer roar in autumn resounds, remain attached to the castle today.

In 1995, the drought of the summer revealed a cross of St. Andrew which drew the diagonals of the square of grass forming the 2nd terrace. This witness to a more glorious past prompted the current Marquis de Jumilhac to launch a vast project to renovate the gardens as presented in the model of the castle dated 1777.

Reorganized around the central basin in accordance with Renaissance concepts and the principles of Le Nôtre, they retrace two mysterious themes associated with the history of the site : gold, exploited 2 centuries BC by the Lemovices and alchemy, studied by the budding steelmaker Antoine Chapelle, 1st Count of Jumilhac (1597).

Thus, the Ors d'un Jardin in their symmetrical aspect, reveal through flower beds protected by a hornbeam, a vegetable labyrinth and its dark room, a rose garden lined with pruned box trees (renovation in 2011) and a mini solar system with flowered planets, two fabulous worlds at the origin of hopes, wealth, discoveries, knowledge, techniques... but also follies, disillusions, miseries, conflicts and persecutions !

Go and meet them all year round on a self-guided tour combined with the Château or independent, with or without a quiz, during the Château's hours or by appointment at 06.09.61.78.40.

• Adults 4€
• Reduced 3€
• Children 2€