Brief
history
- Monique Mosser, historienne d'art, Art
historian, engineer at the CNRS, master-assistant at the Ecole
d'architecture de Versailles
Recent
historical research has come to challenge many of the accepted ideas
about the creation of Courances, especially concerning André Le
Nôtre's contribution to this seventeenth-century garden. This, and the
supposed exclusive restoration by the Duchênes in the early twentieth
century, have been revealed to have no historical basis..
1-Les Nappes, 2-« La Dame de Courances »
by Beaubrun, 3- Courances 1872, 4- Le Fer à Cheval,
5- La Baigneuse.
A more in-depth analysis of historical documents has brought to light a
series of facts that explain the preserved beauty of a park which, at
the start of this, the twenty-first century, reveals itself as a highly
successful synthesis of French garden history. Indeed, what is most
striking is the permanence and longevity-more than five centuries-of the
main formal layout created in the second half of the sixteenth century.
And yet, each generation, each successive owner, has remained attentive
to the specific characteristics of the property: the lack of relief, the
profusion of water and the high density of woodland. Each has left their
mark, reflecting the changing tastes in garden design, without ever
disrupting the overall harmony..
