The Park of Martinvast CastleA formal « French-style » garden

The [B]park of the estate has always played a significant role in the castle’s history.

Here is a brief history:
At the initiative of Alexandre du Moncel, part of the estate was dedicated to the creation of a park.

A formal “French-style” garden was designed, organized symmetrically along a main axis that highlights the castle.
A long avenue leading to the main entrance of the building, then located on the southern facade, was created.

The end of this north-south axis is marked at its highest point by an obelisk, a major architectural element that dominates the surroundings and aligns with structures built several kilometers away.
The “Obelisk Boulevard” is intersected perpendicularly by another visual axis. On either side of these perspectives defined by the cardinal points, two star-shaped parterres and an orderly wooded park were designed. Only a few remnants remain today.

In the 19th century, the landscape integration of the model farm under Alexandre du Moncel gave rise to an English-style park, which continued to be developed by Baron Arthur de Schickler.
He notably created a new pond to the east of the castle, planting it with water lilies. Being a passionate conifer enthusiast, he introduced a significant collection of them along the English River and the Water Lily Pond, in a garden created for this purpose: the « Reserved Garden ».

Valuable descriptions provided by the Cherbourg Horticultural Society offer a glimpse of this place.
It consists mainly of a “vast lawn dotted here and there with choice conifers,” “on a south-facing slope, at the foot of which lies the pond near the Bricquebec road, and the stream that flows from it to cross the park (...).

Along the pond, numerous clumps of bamboo; (...) On a small island, a beautiful bed of hydrangeas covered with pink and blue flowers.” The conifer plantings, which include species from Japan, China, and Mexico, among others, are however not limited to this area of the park.

This collection of exotic trees quickly became one of the horticultural curiosities of the Cherbourg region. At that time, the park was open to visitors on Sundays. However, the « Reserved Garden », along with the Vegetable Garden and the Chartreuses, remained inaccessible to the public.

The current park deviates very little in its broad outlines from what it was under Baron de Schickler in the 19th century.

Deers, foxes, wild boars, birds, squirrels, hares, ...

Some photos of the park