Parc des Buttes Chaumont

The Parc des Buttes Chaumont (pronounced [paʁk de byt ʃomɔ̃]) is a public park situated in northeastern Paris, France, in the 19th arrondissement. Occupying 24.7 hectares (61 acres), it is the fifth-largest park in Paris, after the Bois de Vincennes, Bois de Boulogne, Parc de la Villette and Tuileries Garden.

Opened in 1867, late in the regime of

Map of the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

The park took its name from the bleak hill which occupied the site, which, because of the chemical composition of its soil, was almost bare of vegetation – it was called Chauve-mont, or bare hill. The area, just outside the limits of Paris until the mid-19th century, had a sinister reputation; it was the site of the

The work on the park began in 1864, under the direction of Alphand, who used all the experience and lessons he had learned in making the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes. Two years were required simply to terrace the land. Then a railroad track was laid to bring in cars carrying two hundred thousand cubic meters of topsoil. A thousand workers remade the landscape, digging a lake and shaping the lawns and hillsides. Explosives were used to sculpt the buttes themselves and the former quarry into a picturesque mountain fifty meters high with cliffs, an interior grotto, pinnacles and arches. Hydraulic pumps were installed to lift the water from the canal of the Ourcq River up the highest point on the promontory, to create a dramatic waterfall.

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  The quarries which occupied part of the site (1864)
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  The park under construction (1864–1867)
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  Map of the park at the time of its opening in 1867
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  The park when it opened in 1867
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  The Belvedere island in 1890–1900
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  S.F. Électrographie turn-of-the-century photography

The chief gardener of Paris, horticulturist Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps, then went to work, planting thousands of trees, shrubs and flowers, along with creating sloping lawns. At the same time, the city's chief architect, Gabriel Davioud, designed the miniature Roman temple on the top of the promontory, modeled after that at Tivoli near Rome, as well as belvederes, restaurants modeled after Swiss chalets, and gatehouses like rustic cottages, completing the imaginary landscape. The park opened on 1 April 1867, coinciding with the opening of the Paris Universal Exposition.^[6]

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  A view of the park and the Temple de la Sibylle
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  The park on a sunny afternoon
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  Cherry trees
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  The main promenade within the park
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  A pathway through the park
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  The sloping lawns, a popular gathering place on weekends
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  Temple Sybille from the lake shore
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  A scene within the park

Features of the park

The lake and the Île du Belvédère

The heart of the park is an artificial lake of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) surrounding the Île de la Belvédère, a rocky island with steep cliffs made from the old gypsum quarry. On the top is the Temple de la Sibylle, fifty meters above the lake. The island is connected by two bridges with the rest of the park. the island is surrounded by paths, and a steep stairway of 173 steps leads from the top of the belvedere down through the grotto to the edge of the lake.

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  The temple on the summit of the Île de la Belvédère.
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  The artificial lake seen from the top of the island.
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  A cement bridge on the path around the island.

The Temple de la Sibylle

The most famous feature of the park is the Temple de la Sibylle, a miniature version of the famous ancient Roman Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. The original temple was the subject of many romantic landscape paintings from the 17th to the 19th century, and inspired similar architectural follies in the English landscape garden of the 18th century. The temple was designed by Gabriel Davioud, the city architect for Paris, who designed picturesque monuments for the Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes, Parc Monceau, and other city parks. He also designed some of the most famous fountains of Paris, including the Fontaine Saint-Michel. The temple was finished in 1867.

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  The

  Temple of Vesta in Tivoli

  , Italy was the subject of many romantic landscape paintings in the 18th and 19th centuries. This one is by Christian Dietrich, from about 1750.
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  Davioud's design for the temple in the park
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  Davioud's Temple de la Sibylle (1867)

The grotto and waterfalls

The grotto is a vestige of the old gypsum and limestone quarry that occupied part of the site, now adjacent to rue Botzaris on the south side of the park. It is fourteen meters wide and twenty meters high, and has been sculpted and decorated with artificial stalactites as long as eight meters to make it resemble a natural grotto, in the style of the romantic English landscape garden of the 18th and 19th century. An artificial waterfall, fed by pumps, cascades from the top of the cave and down through the grotto to the lake.

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  A gallery of the former quarry has been transformed into a grotto with a 20-meter high artificial waterfall.
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  The cascade within the artificial grotto
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  The petite cascade, a small artificial waterfall

The bridges

A 63-meter-long suspension bridge, eight meters above the lake, allows access to the belvedere. The bridge was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the creator of the Eiffel Tower.^[7]

A 12-metre (39 ft) masonry bridge, 22 metres (72 ft) above the lake, known as the "suicide bridge", allows access to the belvedere from the south side of the park. After a series of well-publicized suicides, the bridge is now fenced with wire mesh.

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  A 63-meter long suspension bridge, designed by Gustave Eiffel in 1867, allows access to the island in the lake.
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  The so-called suicide bridge, 22 meters high, gives access to the island from the south side of the park.

Architecture

Most of the architecture of the park, from the Temple de la Sibylle, the cafes, and gatehouses to the fences and rain shelters, was designed by Gabriel Davioud, chief architect for the city of Paris. He created a picturesque, rustic style for the parks of Paris, sometimes inspired by ancient Rome, sometimes by the chalets and bridges of the Swiss Alps.

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  A rain shelter, made of concrete hand sculpted to look like wood in a technique known as "faux bois"
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  Davioud's paths on the Belvedere feature handrails made of hand-crafted concrete "faux bois".

The main entrance to the park is at Place Armand-Carrel, where stands the

As of 2019, the park hosts three restaurants (Pavillon du Lac, Pavillon Puebla, and Rosa Bonheur), two reception halls, two Guignol theatres, and two waffle stands. The two Guignol theatres were established in 1892.

The park has four Wi-Fi zones as part of a citywide wireless Internet-access plan.

Flora

The park was envisioned by Napoleon III as a garden showcase, a vision that continue to guide the park's direction. Currently, there are more than 47 species of plants, trees, and shrubs cultivated in the park. Many of the plants and trees found in the park were those originally planted when the park was created.

The park boasts many varieties of indigenous and exotic trees (many of which are Asian species): in particular, several

• Oriental Plane
• Hackberry
• Ornamental Pears
• Ginkgos
• Common Alder
• European Beech
• Giant Sequoia
• European Black Pine
• Large-leaved Linden
• Tulip Tree

Metro stations

The Parc des Buttes Chaumont is served by Lines 5 and 7bis

Culture

In September, the park hosts Paris's annual Silhouette Short Film Festival. The Silhouette Festival features seven days of French and international short films, followed by an awards ceremony.

In 2008, a modern version of the traditional

Eric Rohmer shot parts of his movie The Aviator's Wife in the park.[8]

References

• Jarrassé, Dominique (2007). Grammaire des jardins Parisiens (in French). Parigramme.
  ISBN 978-2-84096-476-6
  .
• Centre des monuments nationaux (2002). Le guide du patrimoine en France (in French). Éditions du patrimoine.
  ISBN 978-2-85822-760-0
  .
• de Moncan, Patrice (2007). Les jardins du Baron Haussmann (in French). Les Éditions du Mécène.
  ISBN 978-2-907970-914
  .
• ISBN 0-9769251-0-9
  .
• Fierro, Alfred (1999). "Buttes-Chaumont". Life and History of the 19th Arrondissement. Paris: Editions Hervas. pp. 80–100.
  ISBN 2-903118-29-9
  .
• Strohmayer, Ulf. "Urban Design and Civic Spaces: Nature at the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in Paris. Cultural Geographies, 2006, 13, 4, 557-576".
• The Trees of Park Buttes Chaumont. Paris: Direction des Espaces Verts et de l'Environment. 2005. pp. 3–4.
• Tate, Alan (2001). "Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris". Great City Parks. London: Spon Press. pp. 47–59.
  ISBN 0-419-24420-4
  .
• Hedi Slimane (2002). Interview for Index Magazine.[9]

Notes and citations

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

• Paris Office of Tourism: Parc des Buttes Chaumont (in English)
• Les Parc des Buttes Chaumont – current photographs and of the years 1900 (in English)
• High Resolution Travel Photographs of Parc des Buttes Chaumont – current high resolution photographs (in English)
• Theatre Guignol Anatole official site (in French)
• Le Guignol de Paris (in French)
• Parc des Buttes Chaumont (in English)
• Rosa Bonheur – website of the restaurant in the park