Will the Exotic Garden of Monaco be able to reopen in 2022?
Since the spring confinement of 2020, the Exotic Garden has posted closed doors. If visitors have deserted the place since then, eleven gardeners are still pampering the thousands of succulent plants that overlook the district of Fontvieille and the Rocher.
This steep site, crowned in 2021 among the most beautiful gardens in the world by the prestigious Ulysses guide, is undergoing major security and consolidation work.
A more delicate site than it looks, given the dilapidated nature of the false rocks and footbridges, erected between 1913 and 1933 (date of opening of the botanical garden) and in fact used by the ravages of time. So much so that, at the end of 2020, the princely government had to release emergency financial aid to support the treasury of the town hall of Monaco.
A highly compromised date
Despite this, the partial opening date, announced for June 2022 in order to present the centenary of the death of Prince Albert-Iuh, would be strongly compromised according to the elected municipal officials, meeting in council Wednesday evening. “ To date, the false rocks demolition phase is complete. However, we unfortunately learned at the end of the year that the princely government would not have entered any sum in its 2022 budget. [voté jeudi soir, lire notre édition de vendredi 17 décembre, N.D.L.R.], even on the line corresponding to studies “, exposes Georges Marsan, Mayor of Monaco, who wrote a letter to the Minister of State “so that an inscription on the head office can intervene”. A missive remained unanswered to this day.
“Dramatic”
“To date, we have no companies selected for further work, regrets André Campana, deputy delegate to the Exotic Garden. The consequence of this non-registration is that the end of the work on the city entrance car park, scheduled for 2023, does not coincide with the opening of the garden. There is a lack of will on the part of the government. We are talking about a national heritage. “
François Lallemand is even less optimistic: “If no budget is allocated in 2022, it will be done in 2023. So, no work before 2024. It would be dramatic for the garden but also the quality of life of this district, long devastated.” Asked this Thursday morning on this subject, the princely government did not respond.
After securing the cliff by the Department of Public Works in the first half of 2020, the Monaco town hall secured the false rocks as well as the footbridges in the second half of the year. A task pursued by the government, concerning these dummy blocks.
Since then, nothing.
Concretely, what work remains to be done on this steep site?
First, technical work on the structure: the false rocks must be rebuilt, the pergolas redone, the walkways destroyed and then rebuilt, and the belvederes rehabilitated. “Without the reconstruction of the footbridges, no passage is possible in the garden, therefore no opening of the site, even partial, is possible”, informs the town hall of Monaco.
Landscaping work to restore the site must follow. Studies have already been started in this direction, at the end of the second quarter of 2021, and were favorably received by the municipal council.