In the eighteenth century, the Noble Courtyard, where the current entrance to the castle is located, was the site of a formal garden, arranged in the “Italian style.” In keeping with fashion of the era, there was a garden of delights and a parterre with a symmetrical arrangement of flower beds hedged by small ornamental plants to create a geometric design.
Restoration work in 2024 was modeled on an anonymous, undated painting, stylistically traceable to the late eighteenth century. It depicts this area as a Renaissance-style garden divided harmonically by large pots and flower beds, since lost. Taking inspiration from that picture, along the facade of the entrance today we find Hydrangea arborescens, or Annabelle hydrangeas, and terracotta pots planted with sage and lemon beebrush along the adjacent facade.
A monumental Ginkgo biloba marks out a clearing where there was once a pond, encircled by marvelous specimens of Taxodium distichum, more commonly known as the bald cypress. The ginkgo was a signature piece of the gardens designed by the great Prussian landscape architect Xavier Kurten, who also gave us the Royal Park of Racconigi Castle.
