Gardens of the Château de la Ballue
Mannerist garden
Like many French gardens, the gardens of the Château de la Ballue have experienced several lives since their first development in 1615. From abandonment to remodeling, they have gone through different states over the centuries, returning in 1973 to the Mannerist style, of which the Ballue gardens are one of the rare French examples.
The gardens of the Château de la Ballue, unique gardens
Since their creation around 1615, the Château and Gardens of La Ballue have been a unique feature of Brittany. The new château stands on the foundations of a pre-existing medieval fortress, and at its foot, the land has been reshaped into terraces formed by the medieval ramparts, which serve as their buttresses; an initial garden, inspired by the Mannerist style, was laid out.
When Claude Artaud and her husband, François-Hebert Stevens – nephew of the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens – purchased the Domaine de la Ballue in the 1970s, the garden, ravaged by the passage of time, had lost its coherence. With the help of Paul Maymont, a visionary architect, they imbued the site with their vision of the garden: a subtle balance between Mannerist stylistic influences and a contemporary grounding. This creative approach is all the more remarkable given that the art of gardening has been neglected, if not ignored, since the post-Second World War era. Thus, Château de la Ballue was once again endowed with a garden, designed not with the aim of recreating the 17th-century garden, but with the aim of remaining faithful to the unique spirit that has characterised the Château de la Ballue estate since 1615. Marie-France Barrère and Alain Schrotter, owners between 1995 and 2005, made certain alterations and secured the estate’s listing as a Historic Monument. Since 2005, Marie-Françoise Mathon has been the driving force behind Château de la Ballue and its gardens; that same year, the gardens were awarded the ‘Jardin remarquable’ label, and in 2017 they distinguished themselves by winning second prize for the most beautiful historic garden in Europe (EGHN award).
The Mannerist garden in France
The Mannerist garden is the predecessor of the French formal garden. Imported from Italy, where Mannerism was already evident in Bramante’s designs for the Belvedere in the Vatican (1502), the spirit of the Mannerist garden permeated 16th-century French designs and lived on in the works of André Le Nôtre. But its playful character, pleasing to a prince, could not withstand the desire for absolute majesty of Louis XIV, who would impose the formal garden known as the ‘French garden’ on Europe.
The Mannerist garden shares a common vocabulary with the French formal garden: parterre, perspective, axis, symmetry, geometry, topiary, grove, theatre, spectacle, architecture, etc. It differs from it in its treatment of Nature. Whereas the French garden favours straight lines and the infinite, Mannerism delights in developing curves and irregularities.
The dialogue between the house and the landscape
The spectacle of Nature
The element of surprise and mind games
Surprise is a feeling that is unfamiliar to visitors to French gardens. Yet it played a central role in the design of the French garden right up until around 1685. André Le Nôtre liked to incorporate elements of surprise into his designs, either through the layout of his paths, which revealed the view only at the very last moment, or through the presence of playful water features that sprayed the walker, giving them a gentle start to their great delight. These devices are a legacy of the Italian Mannerist garden. The Villa d’Este featured examples of these, and in the gardens of La Ballue, such is the promise of the ‘bosquet attrape’.
Mannerism delights in stimulating the mind through rebuses, riddles or wordplay. If there is one motif that symbolises reflection and questioning, it is the labyrinth. The layout of the one found in the gardens of La Ballue is inspired by a sketch by Le Corbusier. In this modern creation, the Mannerist thread is evident in the aesthetics of the meandering paths when viewed from above.
The hornbeam grove with a view combines optical illusions, as mentioned earlier, with wordplay. Its name is a reference to James Ivory’s film A Room with a View (1985), which was partly filmed in Tuscany.
The playful nature of the place is one of its key features; it makes the Ballue garden a garden of freedom.
La Ballue Castle and its Gardens
35560 Bazouges-la-Pérouse
Tel: +33 (0)2 99 97 47 86
