Delegation of the Hungarian Garden Heritage Foundation (HGHF) participated in the conference organized by the French Landscape Architect School of Versailles, where they exchanged views on educational and scientific cooperation and participation in professional programmes.
The 350-year-old Potager du Roi, venue of the conference, has been open to the public since 1991. Founded at the request of Louis XIV by Jean-Baptiste La Quintine between 1678 and 1683 near the Palace of Versailles, the former royal kitchen garden is home to the École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage (ENSP) in Versailles, the first French higher education institution of landscape architecture, which is independent since 1975. It is a historic site and also an outstanding garden, where gardeners not only devote themselves to garden art, but also take care of the rich and varied historic orchard and vegetable garden. The school at the ENSP with the historic vegetable garden is the stronghold of the French theoretical and practical landscape architecture education and research. It is a world-class site for historical garden research and in particular for the maintenance of ornamental kitchen gardens. Accordingly, elite of the international landscape architecture profession represented themselves on the conference, which this year focused on the topic of landscape architecture education. Hungary was represented by Albert Fekete, member of the HGHF board of trustees, director of the Institute of Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning and Garden Art, MATE, who gave a presentation on the history of Hungarian landscape architecture education, current status and the importance of garden heritage. Albert Fekete and Edina Nagy, head of international relations at HGHF, discussed research and educational cooperation with representatives of the ENSP and the launch of joint professional programmes with Didier Wirth, president of the French Park and Garden Foundation (Fondation des Parcs et Jardins de France). The conference, held on 16-17 June, featured 19 presentations on the topic, which can be found at the following link
