Longchamp Park

Parc Longchamp, landscape park based on the English model

Waterfall in Parc Longchamp

The Parc Longchamp is a public park in the 4th arrondissement of Marseille . The approximately eight hectare park is one of the few inner-city green spaces. It was opened in 1869 together with the museum buildings of the Palais Longchamp , whose building and fountain in front of it characterize the southwestern part of the park. In the central area, the park is designed in the style of an English landscape garden. Larger areas in the eastern part of the facility served as a zoo until 1987 . Some animal enclosures and other buildings still bear witness to this today. The park is primarily used for local recreation for the population from the surrounding neighborhoods and offers various leisure options. In addition, it has a great variety of plants and is home to a number of bird species.

Location and transport links.

Fountain with a view of the Place Henri Dunant

Parc Longchamp is located on the Plateau Longchamp hill in the 4th arrondissement of Marseille. The green area is bordered by Boulevard Philippon, Place Henri-Dunant, Boulevard Montricher, Rue Edouard Stephan, Place Louis-Rafer, Allée Jean-Louis Pons, Boulevard Cassini, Impassé Ricard Digne, a section of the railway line from the train station Marseille-Saint-Charles to the station Marseille-Blancarde , the Housing at Rue Louis Gibert, the Boulevard du Jardin Zoologique, the Housing at Rue Buffon and Montbard impasse. Originally the parc extended to the Boulevard Camille-Flammarion. However, this area around the old observatory Observatoire de Marseille is no longer included in Parc Longchamp. The metro station Cinq-Avenues - Longchamp is located directly on the east side of the park, the tram stop Longchamp is at the southwest end of the park near the fountain in front of the Palais Longchamp. There are also several bus stops in the immediate vicinity of the various park entrances.

history

Former bear cage in the Jardin Zoologique

Former elephant pavilion

The Parc Longchamp was created together with the Palais Longchamp in the Second Empire . To ensure the supply of drinking water, the city had the Canal de Marseille built under the direction of the engineer Franz Mayor de Montricher , which was supposed to deliver water from the Durance River to Marseille. The park and the Palais Longchamp represent the end of this construction project, the striking symbol of which is the elaborately designed fountain in front of the Palais Longchamp. The water for this comes from two large water reservoirs located in the park under the Longchamp plateau . To the north of Boulevard Cassini, parallel to Impassé Ricard Digne on the edge of the park, an aqueduct of the historic aqueduct has been preserved. The Palais Longchamp and the Jardin Plateau at the rear were inaugurated in 1869. In the immediate vicinity, the Jardin de l'Observatoire was built around the Marseille observatory between 1863 and 1864 , which is no longer part of Parc Longchamp. In the northeast there was a Jardin Zoologique (zoological garden) below the Jardin Plateau since 1854 . In 1987 the outmoded keeping of animals in small cages and enclosures led to the zoo's closure. Up to the present there is no zoo in the city of Marseille. The closest zoo is around 60 km northwest of the city, where the La Barben Zoo has been operated as a private company since 1969. The area of the former zoo is now part of the public Parc Longchamp as Jardin Zoologique . Various buildings of the former zoo were renovated as part of the alignment of Marseille as the cultural capital (Marseille-Provence 2013). Together with the Palais Longchamp, the Parc Longchamp is listed as a Monument historique .

description

The Palais Longchamp is located on the southwestern edge of Park Longchamp. It consists of two wings of the building which are connected by a semicircular colonnade, the center of which forms a kind of triumphal arch. As seen from the street, the Musée des Beaux-Arts is located in the left wing of the building and the Muséum d'histoire naturelle (Natural History Museum) in the right wing of the building . The building facades are decorated with rich ornaments and sculptures. In front of the palace is a monumental fountain, flanked by stairs, with various basins, waterfalls and fountains, which gave the complex the name Chateau d'eau . This area is surrounded by lawns with flowers. The entrance gates on Place Henri Dunant are adorned with stone sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye . At the right entrance there is a tiger with a gazelle and a lion killing a wild boar . At the left entrance there is a tiger with a doe and a lion killing a mouflon . In front of the natural history museum is the sculpture of the naturalist museum director Antoine-Fortuné Marion .

Former giraffe pavilion

Pony carriage rides in Parc Longchamp

The colonnades of Palais Longchamp provide direct access to the Jardin Plateau behind . This area was created as a landscape garden according to the garden design à la française propagated by Édouard François André , which followed English models. Decorative elements are various sculptures that have been set up. These include the portrayal of the painter Adolphe Monticelli by Auguste Carli , the sculpture by the composer Ernest Reyer by Paul Gondard and that of the painter, sculptor and novelist Valère Bernard by Oskar Eichacker . All three depicted people come from Marseille. Another sculpture is dedicated to the poet Alphonse de Lamartine , designed by Albert Bouquillon . This sculpture was initially made in bronze in 1891 and was replaced by a stone sculpture in 1942 due to the war. There is also a sculpture of the Provencal poet Frédéric Mistral by Louis Botinelly . As a counterpoint to the elaborate fountain system in front of the Palais Longchamp, there is a small drinking water fountain in the Jardin Plateau , a Wallace fountain based on the Parisian model . Leisure activities in this park area include a garden restaurant called a bar , a children's playground and pony carriage rides for a fee.

The former zoo area begins below the Jardin Plateau . This garden area, which is still called Jardin Zoologique today, extends on both sides of the Boulevard Cassini, which are connected by a pedestrian bridge. From the time as a zoo there are still various buildings, including the oriental-style pavilion of the elephants and the pavilion of the giraffes decorated with turquoise ceramics. There is also a cabane rustique , a wooden hut that was once inhabited by ostriches. These buildings were refurbished as part of the cultural capital of Marseille 2013. The Funny Zoo installation also dates from this period , in which a number of colorful animal sculptures were set up to commemorate the earlier zoo animals. These animal sculptures mainly populate the empty cages and aviaries. The other buildings include a historical music pavilion, in which there is a fountain with a waterfall. There are also children's playgrounds and pony rides in this park area.