Folies Siffait

About

The Folies Siffait is a park built between 1816 and 1830 in the domain of Gérardière, at the Cellier, near Nantes, by Maximilien Siffait (1780-1861), amateur architect, and later by his son Oswald (1813-1877), botanist. They have been listed as historical monuments since a decree of 22 July 1992. Long private property, the site became owned by the commune in 1986 and then by the Loire-Atlantique department in 2007.

The Folies Siffait is a decorative garden organized on terraces and presented as fake ruins. These false vestiges, at the origin of different colours, constitute a maze of tower bases and stairways that do not lead anywhere. Niches, balustrades, coloured coatings, stairs, walls, towers, trompe-l'oeil, false ruins and hanging gardens follow each other, with the base material of the slate schist. The site offers views of the Loire.

Maximilian Siffait: He was born on 21 February 1780 in Abbeville (Somme) in a family of bourgeois merchants. He was rocked by stories about Napoleon Bonaparte's epic, who was 17 years old during the Italian campaign and 18 years old...