The most popular green space in Marseille
A remarkable garden
This park is home to gardens of different styles, including a French garden, an English garden, a traditional Chinese garden, a botanical garden and a rose garden. It is also the ideal place for a family outing as it has two playgrounds, a refreshment bar, a restaurant, and the possibility of renting bicycles and rosarias, but also boats to sail on the water!
The Ministry of Culture has awarded it the label of “remarkable garden” and visitors can enjoy a breathtaking view of the sea. In addition, there is a path that allows you to go down to the beach on rollerblades, by bike or simply on foot.
This 17-hectare garden is home to a majestic 18th-century bastide, enhanced by a French garden and 19th-century landscaped grounds.
A little history
Between 1860 and 1880, the City of Marseille called on a plantation engineer from the City of Paris, Alphand, to create this public park. His collaborator, Barillet-Deschamps, was in charge of the project.
In all, six successive landscape architects left their mark on the park: Embry (classical garden in 1775), Paré (English-style park in 1859), Alphand and Barillet-Deschamps (main designers of the current park in 1862), the Bülher brothers (first botanical garden in 1880).
In 1995, the 19th century rock waterfall was chosen as the setting for Jean-Michel Folon’s original work “L’Homme aux oiseaux”. In the same year, an educational trail was set up to discover the various treasures of the park. The plant signage presents the most remarkable trees in the park. The identification of the birds of the lake is approached in a similar way.
