Surface : 1ha20
Creation date : 1927-1935 puis 1969 et 1970 Landscaper: Jules Buyssens (1872-1958) puis René Pechère (1908-2003)
Style : Nouveau Jardin Pittoresque Belge et jardin formel des années 70
Labels : jardin classé et protégé, restauration du jardin pittoresque prix Europa Nostra 2015 ; jardin labelisé European Route of Historics Gardens.
Activities offered (1 or 2 days) :
You have until April 30 to let us know your events
Entry fee : 10€ for the gardens
Description of the garden :
The van Buuren Museum’s Picturesque Garden was designed by Jules Buyssens (1872-1958), an internationally renowned landscape architect. It was developed between 1927 and 1928, ever before the villa was built. The second rose garden took from 1930 to 1935 to complete.
In accordance with the precepts of the New Picturesque Garden movement which was all the rage in Belgium at the time and which Buyssens was a leading theoretician of, the site’s main variations in topography and exposure were ingeniously exploited to create natural scenes: the wild, aquatic, and marshy garden, the alpine rockery, the walled garden, the fern garden, the mixed border… with mastery of the run-off water a subtle element of the mise en scène. A more classical and structured garden composed of terraces and architectural playlets (the green room, the rose garden…) links the villa with the more natural garden.
In 1968 Alice van Buuren contacted René Pechère, aged 60 also an internationally renowned landscape architect who had numerous gardens to his name and was known to have a solid reputation, asking him to create a maze on a recently acquired plot in honour of the Israeli Ambassador and friend of Mr van Buuren, who was due to leave Brussels and whom she wanted to inaugurate the maze before he left his post.
The maze was developed on the theme of the “Song of Songs” and artist André Willequet was commissioned to depict 7 of its passages by creating 7 sculptures, one for each of the 7 secret rooms.
Soon after, in 1969, Alice van Buuren, who had acquired land near the rose garden, asked René Pechère to create a garden in honour of her deceased husband.
After some research, he translated the couple’s love for one another and David van Buuren’s devotion to his Jewish roots into a secret garden akin to a stunning needlework.
The scientific research and restoration work of the two gardens took 12 years, from 2009 to 2021