Gap · Hautes-Alpes
The terraced gardens, cascades and canal of Charance
Above Gap, the Domaine de Charance is listed for its terraced gardens before the château — with their side walls, retaining walls, fountains and grotto — and for its park with cascades, canal, ornamental waters and boathouse.
From the source
Domaine de Charance is a château at Gap, Hautes-Alpes, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. The recorded building campaigns date from the 18th and 19th centuries. It is protected as a monument historique at the second level (inscrit). Details are drawn from the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture.
Editorial reading
The record’s history concerns the working side of the estate: the remains of three eighteenth-century flour mills and a sawmill, destroyed in 1982, of which only the vertical water wheel survives. The 1987 listing describes the pleasure side with care: the terraced gardens in front of the château including their lateral enclosure walls, retaining walls, fountains and grotto, and the park including the cascades, the canal, the pièces d’eau and the boathouse, together with the icehouse and the mill remains. The circular basin on the terrace, photographed against the mountains, is one of those fountains.
Recommendation
Water runs the whole length of Charance, from the mill wheel below to the basin on the terrace, with the Alps for a backdrop.
Sources
Base Mérimée — immeubles protégés · PA00080568 — Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab) — Ministère de la Culture, base Mérimée
Wikimedia Commons · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Gap013.jpg — CC BY-SA 3.0
The château by this garden
Discover the architecture and history of this place at Le Roi du Château.
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