Ethno-botanical gardens in Salagon
Salagon's medieval priory, perched on a knoll, surfaces the surrounding agricultural land, thus maintaining a strong relationship with the landscape
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In order to enhance this connection to geography and territory; Salagon's ethnobotanical gardens have been organized according to the agricultural plots.
Their setting evokes the variety of building entities composing the priory. Gardens acts as a combination, teaching past and present plant uses, in a spectrum going from "magical garden" to a collection of cultivated plants and cereals.
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The collection of cultivated plants and cereals is organized according to the neighboring agricultural land, and the priory's threshing floor.
In the north-western part of the site, gardens evoke nature, in a succession of ecological plots, built in strong relation to the church and its dependant buildings.
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The structure organizes the botanic collection which is enriched by gardeners and scientists of Salagon ethnological conservatory. World plants were hence added to the Mediterranean collection of plants originally planted.
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Irrigation is performed in a gravitational fashion through a network of canals and basins, that remind us the preciousness of water in Mediterranean gardens.
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Photographs by Paul Matheron-Tourre
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- Sponsor
- Departemental Council of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
- Situation
- Salagon Priory, Mane - 43°56’3.82’’N / 5°45’39.03’’E
- Budget / Area
- 275 000 € / 6 ha
- Date
- 1995 - 1995
- Award
- Historic Monument – Awarded "Outstanding Gardens" label from the Ministry of Culture in 2005