Parc des Buttes Chaumont
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Hikers enjoy the slopes, strollers enjoy lying on the grass, and everyone enjoys the romantic ambience in Paris’ largest – and steepest – public garden .
Essentials
Opened in 1867
247,316 sq m
Don’t miss
The Sybille shrine and cliff, the cave, the oriental plane and other remarkable trees, the lake, and the bridges.
Getting there
- Rue Manin and Rue Botzaris (Paris 19)
- Metro: Buttes-Chaumont or Botzaris
Pictures, map, opening hours
The steepest park in Paris
Buttes-Chaumont is the steepest and, aside of Tuileries and Villette, largest park in Paris. Its landscape is a blend of English and Chinese style, and its jagged pattern contrasts with mathematically symmetrical formal “à-la-française” gardens. The most observant will notice overlapping influences from Fragonard and, especially, Hubert Robert, the man who painted Rome’s gardens.
A rocky island in the middle of this park’s well-known lake conceals a romantic shrine to Sybille, exactly where an open quarry once stood, and a cave in an underground quarry.
Inaugurated for the Universal Exhibition
This park was inaugurated on 1 April 1867, at the same time as the Champ-de-Mars Universal Exhibition. Jean-Charles Alphand teamed up with gardener Barillet-Deschamps, architect Davioud and engineer Belgrand to metamorphose the old quarries, dig out a lake, and contrive a cave featuring artificial stalactites – as well as waterfalls and brooks. Davioud also designed part of the 19th arrondissement city hall (1869) opposite this park’s main gates. Butte is French for “mound”, and “Chaumont”, it is believed, comes from “chauve” (bald) and “mont” (mount).
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