Video Documentaries

In 1705, architect John Vanbrugh and gardener Henry Wise designed the garden in Blenheim, in Britain. It symbolised the political and military power of the Duke of Marlborough. Sixty years later, Capability Brown reworked the estate, reshaping the landscape into the image of a romantic painting. Gardens Near and Far ep. 5 - Blenheim, UK An eighteenth century house and park with a nineteenth century garden. The palace, designed by Vanbrugh c1705, was the nation's reward to the first Duke of Marlborough for his victories over Louis XIV. Henry Wise designed the garden, in an Anglo-Dutch Baroque manner with a military cast. It had mock fortifications and regimented parterres. The first Duke died in 1722. During the 1720s his wife, Sarah, canalised the River Glyme and had a triumphal bridge errected. In 1764, the 4th Duke commissioned Lancelot Brown, then at the apogee of his fame. Brown transformed the park by making the canal into a serpentine lake. He also naturalised the woods, desi

The town of Kashan, in the middle of the desert, 250 kilometres from Tehran, is home to the oldest remaining Persian garden. It was Shah Abbas the Great who ordered its construction in 1587, with the aim of reproducing the gardens described in the Quran, symbolising paradise.     Gardens Near and Far ep. 4 - Bagh-e Fin, Iran Fin Garden (Persian: Bagh-e Fin) located in Kashan, Iran, is a historical Persian garden. It contains Kashan's Fin Bath, where Amir Kabir, the Qajarid chancellor, was murdered by an assassin sent by King Nasereddin Shah in 1852. Completed in 1590, the Fin Garden is the oldest extant garden in Iran. The origins of the garden may be anterior to the Safavid period; some sources indicate that the garden has been relocated from another place, but no clear picture of it has been found. The settlements of the garden in its present form was built under the reign of Abbas I of Persia (1571-1629), as a traditional bagh near the village of Fin, located a few kilometres

Jean-Philippe Teyssier, a landscape architect, takes us on a journey to discover the most beautiful gardens in the world. Set within 3,5 hectares (8 acres) of cultivated fruit and vegetables, the big garden at Babylonstoren is at the heart of the farm. It was inspired by the historic Company’s Garden in Cape Town, which supplied sailing ships of the Dutch East India Company with fresh vegetables and fruit during the days when the Cape was a halfway station between Europe and Asia. But we also link back to the mythological hanging gardens of Babylon. Those were thought to have been created by Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BC, for his wife who longed for the mountains and valleys of her youth. Gardens Near and Far ep. 3 - Babylonstoren, South Africa With the Simonsberg, Du Toitskloof and Franschhoek mountains as backdrop, Babylonstoren's garden is majestic. Dating back to 1692, the fortunes of this historic fruit and wine farm took a turn ten years ago when it fell under the ga

Jean-Philippe Teyssier, a landscape architect, takes us on a journey to discover the most beautiful gardens in the world. In this episode, nestled between the Atlas Mountains and the Djebilet desert, the Agdal garden is an oasis of more than 500 hectares surrounded by ramparts, next to Marrakech.    Gardens Near and Far ep. 2 - Agdal, Morocco The Agdal Gardens (or Aguedal Gardens) are botanical gardens of around 400 hectares (4.0 km2; 1.5 sq mi) in surface area, located to the south of Dar El Makhzen, the Royal Palace, and the medina in Marrakech, Morocco. Their name derives from the Berber language for "walled meadow". Extending for some 3 kilometres (1.9 mi), the gardens include groves of orange, lemon, fig, apricot and pomegranate trees in rectangular plots, linked by olive-lined walkways. Together with the medina of Marrakech and the Menara Gardens, the Agdal Gardens were listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1985. The gardens were established in the 12th century

Jean-Philippe Teyssier, landscape architect, takes us on a journey to discover the most beautiful gardens in France and Europe. Beautiful example of harmony, the garden of the Villa Gamberaia dominates Florence and summarizes the art of Italian gardens.  The park of the Villa Gamberaia retains its Renaissance imprint through the presence of iconic materials of the time: pebbles, slag and especially shells. Its orangery reminds us: citrus fruits are the kings of the Italian garden, used in the natural pharmacopoeia, the production of perfumes, cooking, but also as a gift for distinguished guests. Gardens Near and Far ep. 1 - Villa Gamberaia Villa Gamberaia is a seventeenth-century villa near Settignano, outside Florence, Tuscany, Italy. It is it characterized now by eighteenth-century terraced garden. The setting was praised by Edith Wharton, who saw it after years of tenant occupation with its parterre planted with roses and cabbages, and by Georgina Masson, who saw it restored by Sig