Renaissance and Baroque Garden Mazes in Sweden

Abstract

In terms of time, the Renaissance ideals began to occur in the 1530s in Sweden, much later than in Florence. The French Le Nôtre style in the art of gardening, on the other hand, was introduced without delay through the study tours of the Swedish architects. During the great power period from early 17th to early 18th century, enormous wealth was accumulated by the nobility and kings, who invested in building castles and laid out gardens. In many gardens from this time there were mazes for pleasure, sometimes unicursal, but usually with bewildering branches in their passageways. Of all these mazes, few remain today; most can only be experienced by re-enactment of past pleasures, through mind wandering, in drawings, or guided by narratives. This article aims to invite some such imagined walks.

Published in

Caerdroia : The Journal of Mazes & Labyrinths
2024, volume: 53, pages: 11-25

SLU Authors

• Johansson, Rolf

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Landscape Architecture

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/140373