A special EGHN award for Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire

Our readers know the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire very well by virtue of the International Garden Festival, a really popular event for garden lovers that we have been blogging about for years. This year, the Domaine with its expanse of delightful parkland, won first prize in the “Special Award of the Schloss Dyck Foundation, Centre for Garden Art and Landscape Design” category of the EGHN European Garden Award 2019/2020. This year’s focus of the Special Award is on audience development for historic parks and gardens. Here the achievements of Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire serve as an example of best practice across Europe.
Indeed, since its acquisition by the Centre-Val de Loire Region in 2007, the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire has developed rapidly, both in terms of the increase in visitor numbers and the growth in its national and international reputation. It offers a comprehensive experience and an example of “French sophistication”, available to everyone and respectful of its visitors and the environment. 
The château with its exhibitions and collections has been completely refurbished. Highly acclaimed artists are invited to work in this space, bringing together art and nature with exhibitions that celebrate the works created here. The International Garden Festival is organised each year with a different theme as a laboratory for the gardens of tomorrow, inventing new ways of experiencing gardens; it’s a must for anyone interested in plants and flowers and in landscape architecture (link).
So the Domaine offers a “three-fold identity” based on the successful combination of heritage, art and gardens and is considered as a best practice example at a number of sites across Europe that strive to implement similar approaches, with comparable challenges and similar resources. This is true for Schloss Dyck, a moated castle in the Rhineland region of Germany, and the Schloss Dyck Foundation, which decided to grant its Special Award to Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire. 
A total of 13 prizes were presented at Schloss Dyck on 6 September 2019. Five first prizes and eight second prizes were awarded in the following categories: Best development of a cultural landscape of European relevance; Europe’s heritage of gardens and gardening; Best development of a historic park or garden; Innovative contemporary concept or design of a park or garden; Special Award of the Schloss Dyck Foundation.
The European Garden Award does not only focus on spectacular garden art or traditional highlights, such as well-maintained hedges and topiary. Nominations are based on innovative implementation and management, on urban development aspects, on sustainability, on positive visitor services or volunteer work as well as on high-quality restoration or modern design of a park or garden. The winners are selected as inspirations and as models for other projects. Just one more reason to visit the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire this autumn, when the installations responding to the “Le Jardins du Paradis” theme will be changing their colours with the season. 

Christiane Bürklein

European Garden Award, European Garden Heritage Network EGHN
Special Award of the Schloss Dyck Foundation to Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire
Year: 2019
Images: courtesy of Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Eric Sander