Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Alpine Botanical Garden La Jaÿsinia, located in Samoëns in Haute-Savoie, was created between 1905 and 1906 on a south-west exposed limestone hillside, at the initiative of Marie-Louise Jaÿ (known as Cognacq-Jaÿ), founder of the shops La Samaritaine. This 3.5-hectare plot, sloping between 700 and 780 m above sea level, once housed the ruins of the castle of Montanier, destroyed in 1476. The landscaping, entrusted to the architect Jules German (creator of rock at Ariana Park in Geneva), mobilized 200 workers for two years. The garden, offered to the city in 1906, mixes steep trails, waterfalls, and a chapel offering a panorama of the Giffre valley.

Marie-Louise Jaÿ, born in a modest family of Samoëns, funded this philanthropic project in parallel with her Parisian charitable works. At the entrance to the garden, a bourgeois house, known as the doctor's house, was intended to accommodate a practitioner to treat the needy and pregnant women free of charge. Transformed in the 1990s, it now houses a museum space. In 1936, the scientific direction of the garden was entrusted to the National Museum of Natural History, which established a botanical laboratory (GRIFEM) dedicated to research on mountain ecosystems.

Ranked a historic monument in 2016 and labeled a 20th century heritage, La Jaÿsinia gathers 8,000 plants (4,500 species), mostly from cold or mountainous areas on five continents. The site, covered by a stream and rocks, attracts thousands of visitors annually. Its protected elements include the bulb chapel, the ruins of the Tornaltaz castle, the doctor's villa, and the entire hydraulic network. The garden illustrates both Marie-Louise Jaÿ's local heritage and the evolution of scientific practices in alpine botany.

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