I GIARDINI DI U GRAN'PALAZZU DI A CULLETTIVITÀ DI CORSICA
The gardens of the seat of the Collectivity of Corsica
Appena di storia
A little history...
In the second half of the 19th century, when Ajaccio was recommended as a winter resort by English and German medical practitioners, the city's hotel offering left something to be desired. The former mayor, Count Forcioli-Conti, decided to build the Grand Hôtel on his family's property. He entrusted the design to his architect friend Bartholomew Maglioli and recruited a landscaper from Lyons, Charles Peyrouse, to design the garden and the park.
Conceived from the beginning to be discovered by horse-drawn carriage, the garden still retains the remains of its shady and flowery walkways through the rocks. Cars coming and going in the evening to the Ariadne Plage seaside pavilion were allowed along a wide driveway opening onto the Cours Grandval on either side of the park.
Yielding to the fashion of the exotic gardens of the Côte d’Azur, the park was planted with species reminiscent of distant lands, dear to the British.
Over time, the garden has responded to its different owners, seeing a succession of different landscapers. It is now the remainder of the Park of the last owners of the Hotel, M. and Mme Raccat, who wanted to rebuild the fabulous garden where they met.
Registered in the Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments since 1992, the current gardens, the property of the Collectivity of Corsica, preserve some remarkable species.
... è di butanica
and botany
From tall grasses to conifers to flowering species, the Ajaccio climate allows a great diversity of species to coexist, thus creating specific atmospheres.
Water is at the heart of the garden; plants are expertly grouped according to their water needs. Thus, we find a “dry garden” of Australian or South American desert plants, or elsewhere a humid subtropical garden, populated by Brazilian Jacaranda and a tree-fern.
The history of the building
Discover all the history of the “Seat of the Collectivity of Corsica” in Ajaccio.