Jardins du Chaufourg
MonumentHidden Treasure
Jardins du Chaufourg, located in Sourzac (Dordogne), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Sourzac, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 45.0527, 0.4067
- Mérimée Reference
- PA24000028
The Secret Gardens of Périgord, designed as "outdoor rooms" by landscape gardener Tobie Loup de Vianne: a labyrinth, belvedere and green circles make this listed haven a living work of art like no other.
History
In the heart of the Périgord Blanc, in Sourzac, the gardens of Le Chaufourg are one of the most original and intimate landscape creations in the Dordogne. Far from the formal parterres of grand châteaux, they are a natural extension of the residence, organised into "outdoor rooms" - a bold concept that blurs the boundaries between architecture and nature, inside and outside. Each green space has its own atmosphere, its own tempo, like the rooms in a house with green walls. Visitors first discover an English-inspired park inherited from the nineteenth century, where the vegetation is organised into picturesque tableaux: precisely trimmed green circles, winding paths leading to the belvedere, a labyrinth inviting visitors to lose themselves in delight. An ingenious underground watering system, a vestige of Victorian landscaping ingenuity, has kept this verdant setting cool under the Perigordian sun for over a century. The courtyard of old climbing roses, laid out at the turn of the 20th century, is one of the jewels of the estate. These old roses, with their delicate colours and bewitching fragrances, dress the stone walls with a natural generosity that no overly skilful hand could imitate. It's here that time seems to stand still, and that we understand why generations of owners have wanted to make this place a haven of beauty. The great originality of these gardens lies in the vision of landscape gardener Tobie Loup de Vianne, who in the 1960s undertook a thorough renovation of the estate, giving it a new coherence. His approach - to treat the garden as an inhabited architecture, a succession of living spaces - was resolutely modern for its time, and has given Le Chaufourg a personality that is unique in Périgord. Protected as a Historic Monument since 2000, these gardens bear witness to a landscape vision that transcends fashion.
Architecture
The gardens of Le Chaufourg are organised according to a composite landscape logic, the result of three major phases of development that have been harmoniously superimposed. The nineteenth-century English-inspired park forms the backbone: an irregular design, curved paths, circles of greenery - probably round copses or circular lawns framed by plants - and a maze whose labyrinthine design invites contemplative wandering. The belvedere, the highest point on the estate, offers a calculated panorama of the entire composition, in keeping with the principles of the picturesque garden, where each perspective is a staged scene. The courtyard with its climbing roses introduces a more intimate scale, characteristic of walled gardens in the Mediterranean and English traditions: a space delimited by walls or hedges, structured by the verticality of the climbing plants, where visitors enter as if in a secret room. The underground watering system, invisible but fundamental, is a testament to Victorian landscape engineering: a network of underground pipes distributing water in a controlled way, anticipating modern irrigation systems. The work of Tobie Loup de Vianne in the 1960s superimposed a modernist spatial grammar on this heritage: the notion of "outdoor rooms" is reflected architecturally in the careful transitions between spaces, plant thresholds, and the interplay of levels and volumes that structure the walk like a tour of a home. This approach makes the Chaufourg gardens a total work of art, halfway between landscape architecture, garden design and the Perigordian art of living.
Related Figures
Libéral Lacombe — propriétaire du Chaufourg au XIXe siècle, initiateur du parc anglaisAmanda Dambier — co-propriétaire et inspiratrice des premiers aménagements paysagersTobie Loup de Vianne — paysagiste, auteur de la rénovation des années 1960 et concepteur du principe de « pièces d'extérieur »
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Jardins du Chaufourg located?
Jardins du Chaufourg is located in Sourzac, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
When was Jardins du Chaufourg built?
Jardins du Chaufourg dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Jardins du Chaufourg open to visitors?
Jardins du Chaufourg is currently closed to visitors.