Jardins du Château de Jumilhac Take a stroll in an idyllic setting in Périgord Vert

In the 17th century, the Marquis de Jumilhac wanted to modernize his castle and bring it out of its ancestral past. Present at the Court of Versailles, he felt it necessary to create gardens worthy of his rank; these were 12 terraces which, reshaping the rocky spur serving as the base of the castle, descended in stages to the Isle, flowing 45 m below.

These gardens were preserved until the dawn of the 20th century. Alas, the vagaries of the First World War would wreak havoc on this monumental work, to the point that they were gradually sold off to make way for vegetable gardens, orchards, or fields of wheat, along with the 120 potted orange trees and even… the orangery! Only the first two terraces, overlooking the valley where the bellowing of stags echoes in autumn, remain attached to the castle today.

In 1995, the summer drought revealed a St. Andrew's cross that traced the diagonals of the square of grass forming the second terrace. This relic of a more glorious past prompted the current Marquis de Jumilhac to launch a vast project aimed at renovating the gardens as depicted in the model of the château dated 1777.

Reorganized around the central basin while respecting the concepts of the Renaissance and the principles of Le Nôtre, they trace two mysterious themes associated with the history of the place: gold, exploited 2 centuries BC by the Lemovices and alchemy, studied by the budding ironworker that was Antoine Chapelle, 1st Count of Jumilhac (1597).

Thus, the Golden Gardens, in their symmetrical aspect, reveal through flowerbeds protected by a hornbeam hedge, a plant labyrinth and its darkroom, a rose garden bordered by clipped boxwood (renovated in 2011) and a mini solar system with flowering planets, two fabulous worlds at the origin of hopes, riches, discoveries, knowledge, techniques… but also madness, disillusionment, misery, conflicts and persecutions!

Then go and meet them all year round on a self-guided visit combined with the Castle or independently, with or without a quiz, during the Castle's opening hours or by appointment at 06.16.22.97.69.

Prices :

• Adults €4.50
• Reduced price €3.50
• Children €2.50