10 Must-See Gardens Worth Planning a Trip Around

Every art history student has heard of the Uffizi and its mind-bending collection of Renaissance masterpieces. The Boboli Gardens, near the museum, are just as glorious. Located behind the Pitti Palace, the gardens follow the original layout put in place by the Medicis, the banking family that played a central role in developing Renaissance Florence. Niccolò Pericoli, known as Tribolo, began designing and planting the garden in 1549 for Eleonora de Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de Medici. Be sure to visit the grotto designed by architect and engineer Bernardo Buontalenti, as well as the 18th-century “Lemon House,” with its historic collection of lemon trees.

Rarely do designers get to create a gesamtkunstwerk on the scale of Jacques Garcia’s Château du Champ de Bataille in Normandy. The legendary interior designer acquired the Baroque château in the 1990s and has since overhauled every part of it, including its vast gardens. The result is a fanciful interpretation of the formal gardens French kings enjoyed for centuries. Walk through the boxwood hedges, whose layout recalls drawings of the original garden, and find your way to a magical world of grottos, ponds, pavilions, and meticulously constructed temples.

When Frederick the Great built Sanssouci Palace in the 18th century, he had a very specific vision in mind. The Prussian king had a firm rule at his pleasure palace: no female visitors. But he did welcome guests like Voltaire for long summer stays. Today women are welcomed at Sanssouci, and a highlight of any visit is a tour of the gardens. The grounds are expansive, featuring terraced gardens, hedges, and flower beds designed by Frederick himself. There is also a small park with meadows, lawns, and an orangery from Frederick William IV’s reign.

One of the best-kept secrets in Lisbon are the gardens surrounding the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Gulbenkian was a British-Armenian businessman and art collector who left most of his art collection and a great deal of his wealth to the museum, founded the year after his death in 1956. Ponds and tropical trees commingle in the wild, walkable landscape that surrounds the striking modernist museum, designed by Leslie Martin. More than 200 species of flower and plant proliferate in the garden, which is organized in a trapezoid, attracting birds and pollinators that the foundation keeps track of. The large surrounding park offers more to explore and a buffer against the busy city around it. If the mood strikes you, take a peek inside to see 18th-century Chinese porcelain, 16th-century Persian drawings and decorative art, or one of the museum’s many compelling exhibitions.

Very few of us will ever know the joy of creating a make-believe village for our own amusement, but thanks to Marie Antoinette we can at least experience one for a day. Tucked into one corner of the extensive grounds surrounding the Palace of Versailles is the doomed queen’s weekend escape, the Petit Trianon. Abutting the small manor house, Marie Antoinette had her architect, Richard Mique, design a faux village—her hameau—complete with a lake, a grotto, a windmill, and cottages. Mique even had fake cracks painted onto the walls when the structures were erected, between 1783 and 1786. Like something from the Brothers Grimm, the surrounding gardens pull you into a fairy tale—one that ended with a head in a basket.

The serenity of Japanese gardens is legendary—no surprise in a place where the people have spent centuries honing a deep and respectful symbiosis with the natural world. In Kanazawa, one Edo-period garden stands out for its experiential, all-season perfection: Kenroku-en. Construction began at the behest of the powerful Maeda family in 1676 and continued for the next two centuries. It opened to the public in the 19th century and has been meticulously maintained ever since. Its twisting paths, ponds, pavilions, and tea houses cover 20 acres and boast one of the most impressive fountains in Japan. It is said the park is most beautiful in winter.