Parc Borély is a public municipal park in the city of Marseille , in France . It is classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notable Gardens of France . The park is 17 hectares in size. It adjoins the EM Heckel Botanical Garden .
Description
Borély Park has three different gardens; a Garden in the French , facing the country house, Composed of a two lawns, a circular basin and has rectangual basin, and dual rows of trees, entre les Prado Avenue and the gates of the park:
An English landscape garden, on the west side of the park, surrounding a lake, and decorated with statues, fountain, waterfall, and a playground. It also features a miniature of the basilica of Our Lady of the Guard .
A recently renovated race track. The other two parts of the garden connect to the sea by a walk and to the neighboring botanical garden.
History
Joseph Borely, who bought land for a country house, Chateau Borely , in the area of Marseille called Bonneveine. The estate was enlarged in the 18th century by Joseph Borely, who built a bastide, or provencal country house, on the domaine. When Louis-Joseph Borély inherited the domain in 1770, he commissioned the landscape architect Embry to create a French-style garden.
In the middle of the 19th century, the land passed to Paulin Talabot, director of the new PLM railroad which connected Paris to Marseille; and then the land was acquired by the city of Marseille. The city commissioned landscape architect Adolphe Alphande to design a park with three distinct parts; a French garden, an English landscape park, and a track for horse racing by the side of the sea. A number of wooden pavilions were constructed; just one remains, the former pavilion by the lake, which also served as a botanical laboratory of the Colonial Institute.
From 1880 until 1915, the park was the site of a botanical garden, which moved to a different site adjoining the park. In 2002, a walk of two hectares was laid out between the park and sea.
Sources and Citations
- Page on the official site of the Committee of Parks and Gardens