Bus Villandry GB

The Villandry's gardens (CARVALLO)

Story
   
     This castle was built at the begining of the 16th century, in the Renaissance period , it was the last chateau of the first Renaissance built along the Loire valley. It was commissioned by John Lebreton, the prime minister of king Francis the first, who symbolizes the Renaissance.

     In th 18th century, (1754), the castle became the property of the Marquis of Castellane, ambassador of Louis the XVth, who came from the nobility of Provence. This marquis wanted the castle to look more fashionable, so he transformed it by adding new windows in the Louis the XVth style, made the renaissance windows round, he walled up the yard's archways, etc...
     The lost its original style of the 16th century, and it remaind in this state until 1906...


     In 1906, the castle was built by Joachim Carvallo, a brilliant spaniard doctor who was notably the favourite pupil of Charles Richet (Nobel price 1913). He abandonned his laboratory of the medicine's faculty of Paris and bought the castle (which was about to be destroyed) with his wife Ann Colemann, who was american. Originally he wanted to set  his laboratory in this place up, but he became passionated with this monument, and then he decided to devote his fortune to the renovation of it.

Works of renovation :

     First of all, he restored the façade to give it its original Renaissance appearance, he took the windows of the 18th century away, (added by Castellane), and he wanted above all to transform the gardens too. At this time, they looked like landscape gardens, because of the romantic movement of the 19th century. The problem was, Carvallo didn't have any idea of how gardens looked in the Renaissance. That's why he began to search for historical plans. To manage it, he mainly used two reference books:

             - "Monasticum gallicanum" (written in 1694) in which you can find drawings and plans of benedictin abbeys surrounded by several organised gardens which were above all usefull ( kitchen gardens, farmyards, ...)

             - "The  most excellent buildings of France", written in the 16th century by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau which depicts several monuments with perspective, that allows to see how gardens were organised.

     Carvallo concluded from those important researchs 2 principles

              1 : a garden must be usefull, it serves a house and it must be ornamental too

              2: a garden is supposed to be  continuation of a house and not  continuation of a forest for example

     After that, Carvallo destroyed the landscape gardens , he distroyed many trees with dynamite, that shocked the inhabitants of the vicinity, but he used to say "gardens are mind's expression, whereas trees grow everywhere, so don't have their place in a formal garden ".

     Eventually, he built three levels: 

             -at the lowest level, he put a kitchen garden

             -at the middle level, you'll find the ornamental gardens (a representation of love). Actually they're a prolongation of the

              sitting-rooms.

             -at the highest level you'll find the water- garden, with a large ornamental lake. This place is strategic because it irrigates

              the other levels.

     Carvallo made particular efforts to built the kitchen garden, because according to him, it was the most necessary garden, it was inspired of the 15th century benedictin abbey's gardens. He said that this garden was "the most beautiful one, the catholic one, while the others are just esthetics". Actually, after having been an agnostic personn, Carvallo converted himself to catholicism.

     Those gardens are showing different stages that help man to raise toward god, according to Carvallo:

          - first level: vegetables, what your body needs to live
          - second level: world of art and love
          - third level: expression of  mind, in order to raise towards god

     From 1920, when all the renovation works were done, he opened the place, allowing people to visit it, not because a lack of money, but because he thought it was important to increase people's awareness of heir heritage.

     He created "la demeure historique" (historical dwelling), an association which protects private historical monuments.

     Nowadays, this building (and the gardens as well) still belong to the Carvallo familly , the current owner is Henri Carvallo, the great grand child of Joachim, and it's still a private monument.

     Joachim Carvallo was burnt in the Villandry's chapell.