The famous Tuileries Garden, located in the heart of the French capital, is one of the most important sights of Paris. This garden and park complex, made in the classic French style, is often compared to an open-air theater, where sculptures, plants and various landscape elements act as decorations. Today, the Tuileries is recognized as the largest regularly operating park in the territory of its state. It is a favorite vacation spot of Parisians, as well as guests of the capital.
Location
Geographically, the Tuileries Garden is located in the heart of Paris. The green zone of the garden and park complex stretches along the right bank of the Seine River and generally occupies twenty-five and a half hectares. The park is nine hundred and twenty meters long and three hundred and twenty meters wide.
From the south of the Tuileries is limited by the river. To the east of the garden is the Louvre - between it and the Tuileries is Carruzel Square. On the west side, the green quarters of the park pass into the famous Place de la Concorde, beyond which the Champs Elysees begins. The northern border of the Tuileries is indicated by Rivoli, the longest street in Paris, leading to Place Vendome.
Tuileries Garden: history
Contrary to popular belief, the name Tuileries has nothing to do with tulips. In the XV century, on this site was the outskirts of the city, occupied by a landfill and a clay quarry. The French word "tuile", which later gave the name of the garden, means "tile" or "tile" in translation.
The idea to set up a garden complex in this place belonged to Maria Medici. After the death of her husband, Henry the Second, she ordered to buy a piece of land outside the walls of the Louvre and build a palace on this site. A little later, near the Tuileries Castle, on the orders of the Queen Regent, an orchard was laid for walks . It was originally made in the Italian style to remind Maria Medici of her distant homeland.
A hundred years later, Andre Lenotre, the chief gardener at the court of Louis the Fourteenth, completely redesigned the Tuileries Garden, giving it the features of a classic French style. Practically, the appearance of the garden remains in our days. It was at Lenotre that the central avenue was laid in Tuileries, two large ponds were dug up and the ground flowerbeds decorated with ornaments were decorated. A distinctive feature of the Tuileries ensemble is the transparency of borders, in which the surrounding space - and even the sky! - organically fits into the general scenery of the park.
After the royal court left the Louvre for Versailles, the park gradually became desolate, overgrown with trees and weed. The wars and revolutions blazing in the country did not pass for him without a trace. And only at the end of the eighties of the XX century, the Tuileries garden and park complex was decided to be restored and put in order, returning to it all the features of a magnificent design developed by the unsurpassed master Lenotre - the father of the French style.
Tuileries today
In general, the Tuileries Garden today can be represented as consisting of three parts: a "large square" with an ornament, a forest and an octagonal basin. The main part of the garden is formed by five large alleys decorated with sculptures and semicircular stone niches. The location of all the design elements of the park (alleys, flower beds, ponds and groves) is verified to the smallest detail and subject to strict symmetry.
The flora of the park is extremely diverse. His collection contains almost three thousand plants brought from different parts of the Earth. There are also two museums in the garden and park zone, the expositions of which are presented in the surviving buildings of the Tuileries Palace: these are the famous galleries "Orangerie" and "same de pom".
The garden is a pedestrian area; the only mode of transport allowed here is bicycle. The park is always calm and quiet. Visitors spend time walking slowly along the alleys, admiring flowers, ponds and stone statues, visiting exhibitions and openings on open air, and on holidays - participating in folk festivals and balls.
Statue Gallery
One can not ignore another iconic feature, which is remarkable for the Tuileries Garden. The sculptures that adorn the complex represent a variety of time periods, from the Middle Ages to the present day.
The richest collection of garden sculptures is collected on the alleys of the main part of the garden. She served as the motive for yet another Tuileries nickname - the “entrance hall of the Louvre”. Guests and vacationers strolling through the park have the opportunity to admire the works of the brothers Kustu, Carpo, Quazvo, Barrois, Ken, Mayol and many other famous masters of past years and modernity.
However, you should know that most of the sculptures located in the garden are copies. The originals of the masterpieces themselves are in the Louvre Museum.
Interesting facts about the Tuileries
Interestingly, the Tuileries Garden in Paris was open to the general public only after the French Revolution, from 1799.
The main axis of the Tuileries complex departs from the western part of the facade of the Louvre and tends through the Arc de Triomphe in the direction of the Arch of Défense. Thus, the garden is located on the Historical axis of Paris, which is also known as the "axis of the three arches."
It was from here, from the territory of the complex, that the Montgolfier brothers launched the world's first balloon.
Description of the Tuileries Park contains the famous novel "Three Musketeers" by Alexander Dumas.