Villandry

Villandry Castle is one of the most beautiful castles in the Loire River Valley, known for its beautiful gardens, pond, and ornamental vegetable gardens.

The site of Villandry Castle used to be home to the heavily fortified Colombier fortress. In it, on July 4, 1189, King Philip Augustus of France and King Henry II Plantagenet of England signed a peace treaty. Centuries later, the fortress was transferred to the ownership of Jean le Breton, who served as the secretary of the King of France at that time. In 1536, he began rebuilding the fortress. All the old buildings were demolished, leaving only the keep. The new building was built in the shape of the letter P. In 1754, after the purchase by the new owner, the castle was decorated with arches, balconies were added, new rooms and a kitchen were built instead of columns. In the 19th century, the owner of the castle was Jerome, Napoleon's brother. At this time, the castle became imperially rich.

In 1906, the castle was acquired by Joaquim Carvalho and his wife. They were great connoisseurs of art and wanted to restore Villandry Castle to its original appearance, as well as restore the gardens. Later, Carvalho created an association of owners of historical monuments to allow everyone to visit the palaces and castles of the Loire River Valley.

Villandry Castle is designed in the spirit of the Renaissance, and in general, the elements characteristic of 16th-century castles are visible: dormer windows, huge windows with pilasters and capitals, friezes. You can see almost all the rooms in the castle. From each room you can see a huge garden, divided into 3 levels. Jean le Breton took the idea of creating the gardens from Italy, where he worked as an ambassador. Later, such gardens appeared in France. This is how stone fences disappeared from French gardens, replaced by hedges made of clipped shrubs.

The borders of the garden and the alley were framed by numerous flower beds. The upper level of the garden is a "water garden" with a pond, from which water is taken for the operation of fountains and for watering the main garden. There are 3 themed gardens on the second level.: a garden of love, music and medicinal plants. In the garden of love, amazing patterns have been created from flowers, symbolizing 4 types of love: tragic, passionate, tender and fickle. The flowers are chosen so that shrubs and flowers bloom all year round in the gardens of Villandry Castle. In total, together with vegetables, there are more than 250 thousand plants in the gardens. The third level of the gardens is a 1.2 hectare vegetable garden consisting of 9 equal squares. The plots are planted so that the garden looks like a multi-colored chessboard. Fruit trees in the garden form the boundaries of the plots.

Many people will be interested in visiting Villandry Castle. Flower festivals are regularly held here.