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Origin and history

The garden called Serre de la Madone is a landscaped space designed by Lawrence Johnston, an American citizen born in Paris in 1871 and naturalized British in 1900. A history student at Cambridge and a Boer War veteran, he inherited in 1907 from Hidcote Manor in England, where he experimented with a new garden style until World War I. His military engagement (he reached the rank of major) led him to discover Menton after 1918, where his mother was staying in winter. The Mediterranean climate, incompatible with the hot plants of Hidcote, encourages to create a second garden.

On June 24, 1924, Johnston acquired fragmented land from local owners (Maldini, Gioan, Caisson) and expanded his estate until 1928. Between 1927 and 1931, he travelled to South Africa, China and America to bring back rare plant species. The site, spread over 6.3 hectares between 51 and 150 metres of altitude, is transformed with the help of H. Lloyd: ancient lemon trees and olive trees give way to ornamental terraces, a villa (at 80 m above sea level) separating agricultural and forestry areas. Twelve tanks, modernised or created, store 1,000 m3 of water for irrigation.

Johnston left the Madonna Serre in 1940 for England, leaving the estate looted during the occupation. He returned in 1949, but his health declined (memory problems). A collapse in 1952, caused by heavy rains, seriously damaged the site. When he died in 1958, he left the property to Norah Lindsay, then to his daughter Nancy (specialist of ancient roses). The garden changed hands several times: Evelyn Bingham Baring (1959), M. Marsteller (1966), Count Jacques de Wurstemberger (1967), before being abandoned after 1986.

Ranked a historic monument on 12 December 1990 to stop its degradation, the estate was bought in 1999 by the Conservatoire du littoral. A rehabilitation is then undertaken to restore this remarkable garden, witness to the 20th century botanical exchanges and the landscape heritage of Johnston, also creator of the gardens of Hidcote Manor and Sissinghurst in England.

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