Lanniron's gardens
History of the gardens
His lordship de Coëtlogon was the first one to think about having gardens built in the taste of the time : “formal gardens”
Before him, his lordship de Louet had bought
land in order to make small gardens, but the part of the property
reserved for the bishops’ private use was very reduced.
His lordship de Coëtlogon was the bishop of
Quimper from 1668 to 1706. His great orator’s qualities opened for him
the doors of the court of Versailles. His lordship discovered there the
“great taste”. It was the epoch of Louis the fourteenth, the sun king,
the era of the building of the château de Versailles and the gardens of
Le Nôtre.
Restauration of the gardens
Back in Lanniron, the bishop decided to have
gardens in the taste of the century built in Lanniron. Nobody knows who
drew these gardens. Some put forward the names of Le Nôtre or Mollet
but nothing proves either of these assumptions.
The formal gardens, very fashionable in the
17th century, are a mixture of Italian baroque and French classical
gardens. From the Italian they have the composition in terraces
organized around the palace which is the centre of the garden and the
meeting point of all the building lines of the garden.
From the french style, they partition the
flowers with boxwood hedges giving the regular and geometric
organization of alleys such as these of versailles, Villandry or
Vaux-Le-Vicomte.
Thus, we can see that lanniron is a real
example of formal gardens with its terraces, its rectangular alleys,
its squares of flowers geometrically demarcated by small box-wood
hedges.
The box-wood squares are empty nowadays; In
fact, the gardens of Lanniron are undergoing in full restoration. That
began in 1989 after the hurricane of 1987 which devastated the park. We
first began with everything which was “infrastructure”, that is to say
alleys , terraces, walls. Many works remain to be accomplished in order
to consolidate the retaining walls and terraces. The “decorative”
restorations, these are flowers and fountains, aremmed for the years
ahead and will be finishing touch of this long restoration project.
In order to work out this project which must be the nearest possible to historical reality, we have used our own sources.
In 1695, a doctor, who was a poet when in the
mood, wrote a poem with 432 alexandrines and spoke highly of the
gardens of Lanniron and of their designer.
Thanks to the poem, we know that the two
terraces were devoted to flowers. Along the walls of the terraces,
there were fruit trees and semi-circular arches with vines.
The third terrace was devoted to vegetables for decoration but also in order to feed the whole château.
We have another source : a painting created in
the 18th century by painter L’Hermitais, which represents his lordship
de Coetlogon in front of the gardens as they were in the 18th century.
This painting, exhibited in the synod room of the bishop of Quimper was
burnt during the second world war.
Fortunately, we have got a photo of it, taken
at the beginning of the century as well as an engraving of the
background scenery made in 1921.
These are precious indications for the works to be done.
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