Editing Baroque (section)

==Gardens==
{{Main|Baroque garden}}
<gallery mode="packed" heights="170px">
File:Kasteel van Vaux-le-Vicomte - Maincy 06.jpg|Gardens at [[Vaux-le-Vicomte]], France, by [[André Le Nôtre]], 1657–1661{{sfn|Bailey|2012|p=328}}
File:Vue aérienne du domaine de Versailles le 20 août 2014 par ToucanWings - Creative Commons By Sa 3.0 - 22.jpg|[[Gardens of Versailles]], by André Le Nôtre, begun in 1661{{sfn|Bailey|2012|p=332}}
File:Het Loo Hauptachse.JPG|Gardens of the [[Het Loo Palace]], Netherlands, unknown architect, 1689{{sfn|Bailey|2012|p=334}}
File:1 Tessinska palatset trädgård 2.jpg|Garden of the [[Tessin Palace]], Stockholm, Sweden, by [[Nicodemus Tessin the Younger]], 1692–1700{{sfn|Bailey|2012|p=336}}
File:20200403 Schweriner Schloss.jpg|Garden of the [[Schwerin Castle]], Schwerin, Germany, unknown architect, unknown date
</gallery>

The Baroque garden, also known as the ''jardin à la française'' or [[French formal garden]], first appeared in Rome in the 16th century, and then most famously in France in the 17th century in the gardens of [[Vaux le Vicomte]] and the [[Palace of Versailles]]. Baroque gardens were built by Kings and princes in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Poland, Italy and Russia until the mid-18th century, when they began to be remade into by the more natural [[English landscape garden]].

The purpose of the baroque garden was to illustrate the power of man over nature, and the glory of its builder, Baroque gardens were laid out in geometric patterns, like the rooms of a house. They were usually best seen from the outside and looking down, either from a château or terrace. The elements of a baroque garden included [[parterres]] of flower beds or low hedges trimmed into ornate Baroque designs,  and straight lanes and alleys of gravel which divided and crisscrossed the garden.  Terraces, ramps, staircases and cascades were placed where there were differences of elevation, and provided viewing points.  Circular or rectangular ponds or basins of water were the settings for fountains and statues. [[Bosquets]] or carefully trimmed groves or lines of identical trees, gave the appearance of walls of greenery and were backdrops for statues.  On the edges, the gardens usually had pavilions, orangeries and other structures where visitors could take shelter from the sun or rain.<ref name="Kluckert 2015 pp. 152-160">{{cite book|last=Kluckert|first=Ehrenfried|chapter=Les Jardins Baroques|title=L'Art Baroque – Architecture – Sculpture – Peinture|date=2015|pages=152–160|place=Cologne|publisher=H.F. Ulmann|isbn=978-3-8480-0856-8}} (French translation from German)</ref>

Baroque gardens required enormous numbers of gardeners, continual trimming, and abundant water.  In the later part of the Baroque period, the formal elements began to be replaced with more natural features, including winding paths, groves of varied trees left to grow untrimmed; rustic architecture and picturesque structures, such as Roman temples or Chinese pagodas, as well as "secret gardens" on the edges of the main garden, filled with greenery, where visitors could read or have quiet conversations. By the mid-18th century most of the Baroque gardens were partially or entirely transformed into variations of the [[English landscape garden]].<ref name="Kluckert 2015 pp. 152-160" />

Besides Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, celebrated baroque gardens still retaining much of their original appearance include the [[Royal Palace of Caserta]] near Naples; [[Nymphenburg Palace]] and [[Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces, Brühl]] in Germany; [[Het Loo Palace]], Netherlands; the [[Belvedere Palace]] in [[Vienna]]; [[Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso]], Spain;  and [[Peterhof Palace]] in St. Petersburg, Russia.<ref name="Kluckert 2015 pp. 152-160" />