Parc du Contades
Century-old promenade of plane and linden trees, felled for a siege and regrown twice since.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Parc du Contades in Strasbourg follows a promenade planted twice. Marshal Louis Georges Erasme de Contades laid it out in 1764 on an old militia range, lining it with young lindens that barely had time to mature. You'll hear why revolutionary France ordered them felled in 1793, and how the city replanted in 1799 with planes, chestnuts and more lindens. Along the way it visits an eccentric nineteenth-century pleasure garden with a fake Apollo temple, a pyramid and, by some accounts, a live bear.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Parc de Pourtalès
Wooded English-style park with a bronze-and-tree sculpture installation hidden among its paths.
Parc de la Citadelle
Ruined star-shaped fortress reborn as a leafy park, its moats and bastions now framing football pitches and playgrounds.
Place Broglie
Tree-lined civic square, once a horse market, framing an opera house and the birthplace of a national anthem.
Parc de l'Orangerie
Historic landscaped park with a stork breeding center, an orangery pavilion and shaded walking paths.
Forêt de la Robertsau
Alluvial woodland along the Rhine, logged for timber for centuries before becoming a protected nature reserve.
Jardin Botanique de l'université de Strasbourg
University research garden with an arboretum and greenhouses, where a scientist first proved fungi cause disease.