10 of the best gardens in Europe you’ve probably never heard of

03.06.2024 - 12:45 / theguardian.com / Renzo Piano

Any list of European gardens must begin with Italy, even though their immaculate form, symmetry and reliance on non-flowering evergreen structure might jar with the modern yearning for pollinator-friendly naturalism. The Italian garden reached a peak during the Renaissance and has barely changed since. Its fundamental principles remain elegance, charm and decadent relaxation. Giardino Giusti, in the northern city of Verona and once well known among the influential families of 16th-century Europe, exemplifies this timeless artistry. Drift along its green cypress alley past the commanding statues of Apollo and Adonis, get lost in the 18th-century labyrinth and breathe in the heady aroma of citrus blossom.
giardinogiusti.com, adult €15, child €9

There’s no need to leave the capital to experience Greece’s intoxicatingly aromatic, silver-leaved evergreens. With more than 170 native tree and shrub species and grounds crammed with the heady herbs of the Aegean, the comparatively new Stavros Niarchos Park is not only a distillation of Mediterranean flora, but also one of the most innovative contemporary exhibitions of it. Formerly a car park for the 2004 Olympic Games, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (who was behind the Shard in London) in 2016 to house Greece’s national library and opera and a forward-thinking public park. With a gentle slope designed to restore a vital sea view, the park has olive-tree walks, environment-conscious planting, fountains, a vast roof garden and a playground – it’s a civic park of the future.
snfcc.org, free

The inspiration behind Monet’s water lily paintings can be found at Latour-Marliac, 400 miles to the south of the impressionist’s Giverny garden. The former home and experimental ground of 19th-century plantsman Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac, this water lily nursery-cum-water garden in the Lot-et-Garonne department was where Monet purchased the many-coloured lilies for his garden in Normandy. As well as orderly cultivation pools and a tropical greenhouse, these family-friendly gardens boast thermal and cool springs, an underwater cave, a rose arbour and flowerbeds shimmering with peonies and alliums. Come in mid- to high summer to catch the lilies in peak bloom.
latour-marliac.com, adult €8, 6-12 €4

This Spanish garden may have singlehandedly rebranded the cactus for the European audience. That spiky staple of the 1970s conservatory? Yes, but seen here in its myriad, mesmerising forms, little and large, fierce and flowering. Set between the mountains and the sea on the Montjuïc rise in the south of Barcelona – and another example of high-end horticulture in the public domain (AKA free of charge) – Mossèn Costa i