The Majorelle Garden is a botanical garden designed by the expatriate artist Jacques Majorelle in 1924 during the Colonial Period in which Morocco was administered by France.
Majorelle got established on Marrakech’s Medina (French protectorate, back then) and fell crazy in love with lights, colors, smells, sounds, architecture, population, zoco (markets) and kasbah (fortified edifications)… He wanted to take advantage of this precious inspiration to make a place of his own, and so he decided to buy a property in 1922 located right next to the Marrakech palms trees forest, where he, in 1923 started constructing his own chalet.
It was constructed by architect Paul Sinoir, under an Art Deco concept and delicate modern style, inspired on Le Corbusier and The Bahia Palace (Marrakech); consisting of the main house on the first level and his own workshop studio on the lower level.
Majorelle, so very in love with botany, creates and designs his very own botanical garden all around his chalet, consisting of a centered fountain and diverse environments complemented with a great variety of exotic plants and rare species that he brought himself from all around the world on different trips such as cactus, yuccas, lily pads, nympheas, jasmines, bougainvilleas, bamboo and coconut, banana and palm trees; adorned with different fountains, groves, pergolas and ceramic jugs.
In 1937, the artist creates his own shade of blue, the Bleu Majorelle, something like a delicate and intense ultramarine color that was used to paint all the walls of the chalet and then all the garden’s to create his personal living piece of art, opening his doors to the public in 1947.
As result of a car accident in 1962, Majorelle retires back to France never coming back and leaving the Garden in total abandonment.
But later in 1980, Yves St. Laurent and his sentimental partner, Pierre Bergé, found the “Association pour la Sauvegarde et le Rayonnement du Jardin Majorelle” in order to take back the garden to the state it once was… So they repurchased the chalet and restored the whole garden to the old Majorelle spirit, increasing plant species from 135 to 300 or more… They conserved the house level for the private use, and transformed the workshop studio into the Islamic Art Museum of Marrakech in which there was exposed his personal collection acquired from diverse trips of Islamic art from Magreb, Middle East, Africa and Asia, such as weapons, jewelry, textiles, pottery, Arabian ceramics and art pieces by Majorelle.
The garden was property of Yves St. Laurent until 2008, when he died… His ashes were scattered in the Garden and the rest of the edifice was taken care by other people.
Nowadays the garden is being taken care of by 20 gardeners and is one of the most important touristic attractions of Marrakech. Serving as shelter to plant species from all five continents highlighting the great collection of cactus and Bougainvillea; and hosting more than 15 species of birds that can only be found in the North African area.
This is for sure, one the most beautiful, unique and exotic gardens I have ever seen. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
Visit the official site: http://jardinmajorelle.com/ang/
Or search #majorellegarden on IG to see beauties.
And enjoy the gallery
– M
The Art Spot Blog 