"Gardens and Plants, Loire Valley heritage" symposium

This event will bring together scientific stakeholders from several disciplines and socioeconomic stakeholders from the Centre-Val de Loire and Pays de la Loire Regions in order to take stock of research and professional experiences around the following themes: 

• Session 1 - Gardens in the Loire Valley: heritage objects and objects of study
• Session 2 - Creation, recreation, restoration
• Session 3 - Gardens and biodiversity
• Session 4 - Gardens and socioeconomic development (plant and tourism sectors)
• Round table discussion - The gardens of the future: issues and risks

Locations: 

• Friday 24 November at Université François Rabelais in Tours
• Saturday 25 November at Abbaye de Fontevraud

The programme will be released in October, when registration opens. 

Presentation

Since 2000, the listing of the Loire Valley cultural landscape as UNESCO World Heritage has recognised universal values in a "landscape civilisation" characterised by remarkable developments in the space and renowned heritage. There are therefore close links between gardens and plants, anchored in this Loire region: it is part of a long history with a wide variety of forms and expressions and socioeconomic and ecological development which explain the Loire Valley's decisive role in horticultural and plant innovations. 

Since the Renaissance, natural spaces were laid out in this area, drawing inspiration from models designed by Humanists. The famous metaphor, the "Garden of France", used since the 14th century (Franciae viridarium), is a perfect way to describe the relationship between gardens and landscapes in the Loire Valley. With the construction of exceptional royal and princely residences, this metaphor – irrevocably earmarked for Loire landscapes – was further backed up by the roll-out of botanical gardens, parks, flower gardens and nurseries where plants from the Indies and the New World were acclimatised. There were also kitchen gardens and orchards which, due to land pressure, left the urban area to become market gardens. 

In this way, this horticultural and landscape heritage depends on ancestral botanical knowledge – to be rediscovered. Through the long-standing relationship they have with the landscape, the gardens of the Loire Valley form a legacy, a living heritage, that needs to be preserved and updated. Today, this common good has led to the development of a vast array of research and development activities, focused on cultivation processes, landscape planning design, recreation/restoration of historical gardens, cultural enhancement of "green heritage", and on environmentally responsible ways of managing these spaces.