Acquigny Castle park and gardens

Tourism, holidays & weekends guide in the Eure

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Nestling at the confluent of the Eure and Iton rivers, the Renaissance castle of Acquigny is surrounded by a superb 15-hectare landscaped park. This peaceful and romantic park is open to the public from April to late October, and is dotted with lakes and waterfalls. It is full of a variety of species such as Japanese sophoras, Lebanon cedars, purple beeches, sequoias, strawberry trees and hackberry trees. A charming place that's ideal for a leisurely stroll... Also take advantage of this wonderful walk to discover the 18th-century orangery and its collection of citrus fruit, as well as the estate's floral orchard kitchen garden!

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Acquigny Castle park and gardens

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Schedule: From the first Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October from 14h to 18h, weekends and public holidays. Every day from July 14th to August 31st from 1pm to 7pm. Group tours all year round by appointment.
Prices: Child (8 to 16 years old): 5 euros. Adult: 8 euros.
Contact: +33 2 32 50 23 31.

The castle :

Since the early Middle Ages the site was fortified to control navigation on the Eure. Stake of Franco-Norman and Franco-English wars during the Hundred Years War the fortress was taken by the armies of Charles V in 1364 and then razed in 1378.
The current castle was built from 1557 by Anne de Montmorency Laval, widow of Louis de Silly, cousin of the king and first lady-in-waiting of Catherine de Medici. She wanted the architect, Philibert de l'Orme or Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, to be inspired by her eternal love for her husband and build his home using their four initials interlaced. It is the origin of a complex plan and an original construction of a rare elegance centered on a turret corner loggia superimposed resting on a scallop-shaped trunk. This facade of honor is covered with many decorative elements that celebrate this exceptional love and the glory of his family.
Around 1745 Pierre Robert the Roux d'Esneval, known as the President of Acquigny, had the castle enlarged, bought in 1656 by his great-grandfather Claude le Roux de Cambremont, with low balustered wings. The same architect Charles Thibault rebuilt the chapel Saint Mauxe as well as stables and sheds. He also built an orangery, the church and the adjoining "little castle" intended to be a hermitage. The President of Acquigny, a man of great piety, after rebuilding the church, wished to end his life as a hermit, living according to the rule of strict observance of the Great Hatch. From the end of this pavilion he could attend the services celebrated in the church. The architecture of this building is sober, but harmonious. The play of colors - blue slate, pink brick, white stone - and symmetry play a vital role in the beauty and balance that emerge from this listed monument.

The castle park:

From the vast park of the eighteenth century to the regular drawing of which the plan of 1784 is presented in the reception room, there remains, around the kitchen garden, the general layout of the perpendicular waterbodies, but the rows of trees and the parterres symmetrical have disappeared. However, beautiful linden trees or powerful chestnut trees that have freed themselves from their geometric shape embellish the wood. Two major elements, the vegetable garden and the orangery, have regained some of their past splendor. At the beginning of the 19th century, the network of straight channels was completed by a winding river traversed by a romantic bridge and a rock path inspired by a theme dear to Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the reveries of a solitary walker. This river also includes basins where the big trees and the castle are reflected on either side of the cascades or the big waterfall. During this walk appears the silhouette of the chapel Saint Mauxe, a tower of the fourteenth century now protecting the Christ from the former cloister of the priory or a cottage of the eighteenth century with its irises and sedum on the ridge.
Located at the end of the current park, the vegetable garden has the exceptional peculiarity of being simultaneously surrounded by high walls of pink brick baked on the estate and canals. These walls are covered with a framework supporting a slate roof and are towed with beautiful large pear trees with their 15 or 20 branches. Its restoration began with walls, roofs, canals and plantations. It continues with the return of the flowers.
Designed for the President of Acquigny around 1746 by Charles Thibault, the orangery has since its restoration a collection of citrus fruits, palm trees and Mediterranean plants. It also serves as a showroom, concert and reception. Its pink bricks, the blue gray of lavender, the blue carvings of the Arizona-cut cypresses form a decoration of choice for citrus in pots arranged on sunny days in front of the orangery. Mediterranean plants or warm regions are planted along the facade: jasmine, pomegranate, passionflower, fremontodendron with yellow flowers, jasmine with persistent foliage, vines...
Designed around 1820, the landscaped park was designed to highlight the castle and the site. The alternation of lawns, groves of flowering shrubs, rhododendrons and bodies of water is a harmonious landscape. It allows to find the historical perspective of the valley of Eure originally intended to monitor the river and guess the valley of Iton. The tree plantations were particularly happy. In this site heat and water combine to allow an unusual development of different species: the plane trees of different cultivars reach here 46 meters in height, the Japanese sophora planted at the same time as the Jardin des Plantes of the city of Paris are Particularly remarkable are the purple beeches, pines laricio, sequoias, bald cypresses, lime trees, chestnut trees... The diversity of species is renewed during plantations: cedars of Lebanon, Atlas or Himalayas, tulip trees of Virginia, Honey locust trees, umbrella pines, mulberry trees, hackberries, arbutus trees or strawberry trees...

Oriental plane

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Artificial river crossing the park of the castle of Acquigny

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Hermitage of the Acquigny castle with Sainte-Cécile church

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Cascatelle and his plane tree cloak in the park of Acquigny Castle

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One of the Sequoas Park Castle Acquigny

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Castle Acquigny through the hydrangeas and rhododendrons

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The Eure along the park of the castle Acquigny

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Oriental plane overhanging the monumental waterfall of the 18th century Château d'Acquigny

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The cascatelle and its basin (Château d'Acquigny)

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The two sophoras of the eighteenth in the park of the castle of Acquigny

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The orangery and the citrus collection of the Château d'Acquigny

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A citrus from the Acquigny Castle collection

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The kitchen garden of Château d'Acquigny

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Intertwined hands, symbols of love and fidelity, decor of the Château d'Acquigny

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Culinary garden of the kitchen garden of the Château d'Acquigny

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Garden of medicinal plants from the kitchen garden of Château d'Acquigny

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Chapel of the Sainte-Cécile d'Acquigny church seen from the castle park

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Renaissance Castle

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Cascade eighteenth century castle park Acquigny

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Castle seen from the park

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Detail of the turret of the Château d'Acquigny

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Artificial river of the park of the castle of Acquigny

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Citrus collection from the Château d'Acquigny park

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Tourism, holidays & weekends guide in the Eure

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Acquigny Castle park and gardens

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