The layout of the Sun garden

The Sun Garden occupies the only part of the Villandry estate which hitherto did not contain a garden. It stands in what used to be a meadow surrounded by lime trees, on the chateau’s highest terrace. Between 1908 and 1918, Joachim Carvallo recreated the Chateau of Villandry’s Renaissance gardens, in place of the 19th-century “jardin à l’anglaise” (English-style landscaped garden). He had come up with the design for this terrace. To mark the centenary of the recreation of the Renaissance gardens, the current owner Henri Carvallo wanted to produce this garden based on his great-grandfather Joachim’s design.

The Sun Garden respects the general principles for the structure of the gardens of Villandry, forming a cloister of greenery made up of three chambers: The Children’s Chamber, where there are outdoor games and decorative apple trees, The Sun Chamber, the central part of the garden, with a sun-shaped ornamental pond, the eight-pointed star designed by Joachim Carvallo, and beds of perennials, The Cloud Chamber , where little grassy avenues forming triangles wind their way amidst rosebushes and shrubs.

For this garden, Henri Carvallo called on the services of Louis Benech, one of France’s leading landscape architects, who designed the garden of triangles and chose the collection of perennials. Alix de Saint-Venant, landscape architect and owner of the Chateau of Valmer, designed the garden’s overall structure. Arnaud de Saint-Jouan, head architect at the Historic Monuments department, designed the sun-shaped ornamental pond, the garden’s focal point. The designs were executed entirely by the Chateau of Villandry’s team of gardeners. The work began in winter 2006/2007. The inauguration took place on 20 June 2008.