Travel During your journey to Marrakech, do you intend to visit the Majorelle Garden?
In this essay, I go through everything you need to know.
The Majorelle garden is one of the spectacular locations you may visit when visiting Marrakech and will leave you with a life-long memory.
I welcome you to read this short piece to find out more about this beautiful botanical park, which is currently one of the most visited locations in the area.
The Majorelle Garden’s history
The French painter Jacques Majorelle is the author of the Majorelle Garden.
Jacques Majorelle, a famous ebologist and avid traveler, discovered Morocco in 1917 when he was 31 years old, during the French protectorate.
He quickly fell in love with this country and, more specifically, the city of Marrakech.
A few years later, the painter acquires ownership of a 1.66-hectare plot of land in the north-oeste corner of Marrakech’s Medina, where he plans to build the Villa Bou Saf Saf and a Berber-style painting studio.
Majorelle is a great lover of flowers and plants in addition to painting.
In 1928, he purchases additional land (4 total hectares) around his property in order to establish a botanical garden.
From 1931 on, he hires architect Paul Sinoir to build another mansion, this time in the cubist style, around which he starts to landscape a garden.
Over the years, Majorelle adds plants native to every continent to his garden, including cacti, cocotiers, banana trees, and even yuccas.
Majorelle toiled tirelessly for a dozen years to transform his garden into a spot without comparison.
The garden has been transformed into a magical setting as a result of the painter’s eye, which he considered to be his best work.
After a while, maintaining the garden became too time-consuming and expensive, therefore the Majorelle Garden was made public in 1947.
The painter died in 1962 after a car accident, and the garden was essentially abandoned after that.
The well-known designer Yves Saint Laurent, who has been visiting Marrakech frequently since 1966 and frequently draws design inspiration from the garden, takes over ownership of the Majorelle Garden and the Cubist mansion in 1980.
Under his influence, the garden rediscovers its splendor, and an Islamic art museum is built inside the villa.
The Association Jardin Majorelle was established in 2001 with the goal of preserving the historical and natural heritage that the garden represents.
After the designer’s passing in 2008, a memorial made up of a romain column was placed in the middle of the Morelle garden.
In 2011, the Musée Bébère, which is opened by Moroccan King Mohamed 6, replaces the Museum of Islamic Art.
Over 600 of the items on display in this museum are from Yves Saint Laurent’s collection.
Visit the Majorelle garden
I think visiting the Jardin Majorelle is a must if you have no idea what to do in Marrakech.
As soon as you enter the Majorelle Garden, you will be astounded by the incredibly lush vegetation.
This garden, which covers an area of around 1 hectare, has close to 300 different plant species.
You may see, for example, cacti, bambous, palm trees, a ton of aquatic plants, and a ton of flowers that are used to decorate the pots and add a wide range of colors.
The garden also has a diverse animal population, including numerous bird species (such as falcons, turkish tourterelles, and garden bulbuls).
You can visit the berberian museum, the museum library, and the Yves Saint-Laurent memorial in addition to admiring the vegetation and taking advantage of the garden’s lovely setting.
You will have the option of following a pre-planned route that will allow you to see the cubist villa, various plant species, as well as the bassins and fountains that decorate the park’s pathways.
Le fabled blue Majorelle provides the tone as it leaves this garden.
This painter-unpleasant color encompasses not just the villa but also a wide range of objects, from straightforward flower pots to complete fontaines.
This deep blue, which borders slightly on violet, stands out sharply against the vegetation’s verdure, the ornate decorations, and the much lighter blue of Marrakech’s sky.
You are free to explore the garden however you like, but if you follow the traditional route, you will first come across a fountain at the main entrance, then pass through the cactus and cacti area, and finally arrive at the famous blue square fountain right in front of the Berbère Museum.
You will next have the chance to explore the large palmery and the basin with neophars before concluding your excursion by paying a visit to the Yves Saint Laurent memorial and the small bambous forest.
You can take the time to settle in on the Café Majorelle’s terrace while you are visiting the garden to sip a drink or eat a meal.
There is also access to a store offering a wide variety of handcrafted items inspired by Moroccan culture.
The profits from this store are entirely put toward funding initiatives that support regional growth.
