Monty Don's Spanish Gardens s01e02 (2024)
Monty journeys across the south of the country, from the island of Mallorca to the capital of Andalusia, Seville. Its warm Mediterranean climate and rugged landscape have been a magnet for many, from invaders from north Africa to the holidaymakers of today, helping to shape many of its gardens. Looking to the future, Monty also visits projects which have tried to mitigate the effects of the tourist boom and the increased challenges brought about by climate change.
Transcript
00:00Like many people, my experience of Spain has come from going on holiday,
00:04mainly in the sun-soaked south.
00:06But that's only a very small part of this huge country.
00:13Spain's history is deep and complicated,
00:17and its landscapes, climates and cultures have huge diversity.
00:26And in this series, I want to get under the skin of the country,
00:29by visiting as many gardens in Spain as I can.
00:33So I can shed light on this nation's past, its future and its people.
00:39Wow, that's a whopper.
00:42I've seen gardens that are public, as well as gardens that are very private.
00:48I've seen gardens made for unlikely clients.
00:51Now, show me the garden.
00:52I've also found inspiring gardens in unlikely places.
00:57It's a surprise inside a building. It's a surprise inside a school.
01:01And as I've travelled over 4,000 kilometres,
01:05I've seen modern masterpieces,
01:08as well as lovingly tended historical jewels.
01:15This is a complex and vast country.
01:18There is so much to see and so much to learn.
01:28BIRDS CHIRP
01:36I've decided to begin here on the island of Mallorca,
01:40in fact, right up on the northern tip of the island,
01:43because although a lot of British people I know think of Mallorca
01:47primarily as a holiday destination,
01:49it's also rich in gardens, very varied and completely fascinating.
01:56While I'm here on the island,
01:58I'm going to visit four very different gardens.
02:07I'll then make for the mainland
02:09and drive right across the south of the country,
02:12visiting a modern garden packed with plants,
02:15an extraordinary place built for an extraordinary owner,
02:20and an ambitious project to bring Old World charm back to the coast.
02:26How many pots are there in all in the city?
02:28More than 16,000.
02:30Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
02:34And I'm starting here in this garden, overlooking Porto Palenza,
02:39which is almost impossibly glamorous,
02:42but actually also has a deep and rich history.
02:47This is La Fortaleza...
02:53..which was originally built as a fort set high above the bay and port.
03:01It's now a wedding venue, an occasional film set.
03:06The garden is still dominated by its original defensive fort,
03:11which was begun in 1623.
03:14And it defended then the important port of Puerto Palenza,
03:18which was at the trading crossroads of the Mediterranean
03:21and, in consequence, often raided by pirates.
03:28In 1919, the city of Mallorca,
03:32in 1919, the wealthy Argentinian painter Roberto Romage
03:37bought and converted the fort,
03:41making an extravagant yet elegant 1920s garden
03:45with its topiary and cypresses
03:47that captures the full romance of the location.
03:53This was where Romage would invite his artistic friends,
03:57such as Pablo Picasso,
03:59to stay and enjoy famously wild parties.
04:06And it included this swimming pool
04:08in all its glorious theatrical excess.
04:22What I really like about this garden
04:24is the way that each layer of history
04:27remains, it hasn't been erased or sort of trodden over
04:31with the heavy feet of its successors.
04:34So you have the 1620s tower and the 1920s garden all around it
04:38with these now mature planting,
04:40which hosted these rather extraordinary parties.
04:49But it all came to an abrupt end with the Spanish Civil War.
04:55And in 1936, the fortress was confiscated
04:58by the Spanish Air Force.
05:02It was subsequently abandoned and fell into disrepair
05:07until the house and garden were lovingly restored
05:10and then sold in 2008 as the most expensive property
05:15in the whole of Spain at that time.
05:25MUSIC PLAYS
05:38Mallorca's position in the Mediterranean
05:40has meant it's always been a key strategic stronghold
05:45and an important centre of trade,
05:48so it has had an influx of visitors and invaders for millennia.
05:55MUSIC CONTINUES
06:02The reason why there are defensive positions like Fortaleza
06:06and others around the island
06:08is because throughout its long history,
06:10it has been occupied, invaded, defended,
06:14from the Romans through the Visigoths
06:17and then you had Islamic occupation for over 300 years
06:21as part of Islamic Spain
06:23and then the Bourbon Empire with its main centre in Naples,
06:26trading influences from northern Europe,
06:28and all these people, all these different cultures
06:31left their mark on its gardens.
06:39So I'm now off to see
06:41one of Mallorca's most significant historic gardens.
06:46The Alfabia Gardens are situated inland, north of Parma,
06:49beneath the Tramontana Mountains.
06:54Alfabia is a large manor house...
06:59..with elaborate gardens that flow seamlessly
07:02into the surrounding orchards and farmland.
07:11Dating from the 11th century, the roots of the Alfabia are moorish.
07:17Water is the absolute key to these Mallorcan gardens.
07:23The rain is very erratic
07:25and often doesn't rain for months in summer,
07:28but the water collects down to the water table
07:32and the moorish gardeners learnt
07:35that if you tunnelled down to the water table,
07:38and this meant going at an angle,
07:40the pressure would drive back up.
07:43To the ground level, and then it could be channelled down
07:46to wherever it was needed.
07:48So this system was developed and used by the Islamic gardeners
07:53and then was passed on in 1230
07:57when the Catalans took over and was used then.
08:03The gardens at Alfabia are a clear example
08:06of how every culture that's come into contact with Mallorca
08:09has found its way into its gardens.
08:16In the 17th century,
08:18there was a very strong Italian influence here in Mallorca
08:21and, of course, the Baroque gardens used water for play.
08:32These jets were designed to be operated by a private jet.
08:36These jets were designed to be operated by a pressure switch,
08:40triggered unwittingly by visitors
08:42who subsequently got a soaking to general hilarity.
08:51And to keep the water pressure constant,
08:53they built tanks and reservoirs,
08:56including this exquisitely beautiful one.
09:07This part of the garden was the latest to be added.
09:10It's called the Romantic garden
09:12and it features plants that were gathered from all over the world.
09:16In fact, this was a trend of the 19th century happening in Europe.
09:20So we see, for example,
09:22bananas growing in this very dry Mediterranean climate.
09:26There are cedars, there are pines, there are strelitzias.
09:30And only existing plants,
09:32by and large, because of this incredibly efficient irrigation system.
09:44It certainly brings home to me
09:46just how much we take water for granted in the UK.
09:50Yes, we complain about it a lot,
09:52but it's pretty constant and we can depend upon it.
09:55But here, the gardens wouldn't exist without water.
10:00But here, the gardens wouldn't exist at all
10:03without an ancient system of irrigation
10:06that has seamlessly gone from the Moorish occupation,
10:10which lasted for over 300 years,
10:12to the Christian one in medieval times.
10:15And seeing how that works is another piece of the jigsaw
10:19that makes up the gardens of this island.
10:30It's early on a Sunday morning
10:33in the hill town of Sinew, right in the centre of the island.
10:46The mountainous interior has long been
10:49where people from overseas come to settle.
10:52Attracted by the beauty of the landscape and the architecture,
10:56as well as the Mediterranean lifestyle and climate.
11:08And I'm now going to visit a garden made by a Swiss expatriate,
11:13who has influenced gardens dealing with an increasingly dry climate
11:17the world over.
11:20PIANO PLAYS
11:23Torre d'Ariant is up a steep five-kilometre track
11:27on the north of the island.
11:30Set in spectacular, but extremely rough, stony land.
11:41When Heidi Gildermeister bought this old farmhouse
11:44and the ten-hectare plot in the early 1980s,
11:47she had originally envisaged creating a garden here
11:50that would be a kind of tropical jungle.
11:56So, that first winter, she planted accordingly.
11:59And initially, everything looked green and lush.
12:03But as soon as the heat and drought of spring and summer came,
12:08everything she planted withered and died.
12:12Is this the natural hillside here? Yes.
12:15So, this is what it looked like.
12:21Faced with this reality, Heidi spent the next 25 years
12:25experimenting and adapting her plans.
12:35And as I'm guided through the garden in the late afternoon,
12:39by Susanna Quintanilla, who now looks after it,
12:42the results of Heidi's meticulous experimentation and creativity
12:47unfolds before me in all its glory.
12:51I love these stones.
12:53It's beautiful.
12:55I know it's about plants, but the rocks are just amazing.
13:01How many gardeners working in the garden?
13:03Only me. Only you?
13:06This is all looking, to me, very green and healthy.
13:10Do you water all this?
13:25To create a garden with so little need for water,
13:28Heidi carefully selected plants from all the Mediterranean regions
13:32of the world that would thrive in these conditions
13:36and then brilliantly combined them.
13:40So, African plants like cossonia and areocephalus
13:44are happy growing here because they are planted in a way
13:47that allows them to help each other
13:50through creating shade or shelter from the wind.
14:03How is the garden divided up?
14:27So, it's really a question of choosing the right plants
14:31and the result is incredibly beautiful.
14:35Oh, thank you.
14:37It's a tribute to your skill and your work.
14:44The effects of climate change have made Heidi's work
14:47at Torre d'Ariant increasingly relevant.
14:51And now people from all over the world make their way up
14:55that long, steep road to this garden
14:58to learn and to pay homage.
15:06Having read about the harshness of the conditions,
15:09I think I was expecting something much wilder and much rougher,
15:14but actually what I'm seeing is a garden that is beautifully balanced
15:18and really sophisticated and rich.
15:21It is just stunning.
15:29The next morning, I'm up early to cross to the other side of the island
15:34to visit a private garden that I've admired for years,
15:37but only from pictures,
15:39so the chance to visit it at last is a treat.
15:48The garden is the Cotonet Garden
15:51and it has become hugely influential.
15:54Its designer, Fernando Carancho,
15:56is now regarded as one of the world's leading garden designers.
16:01But when he created this garden, it was one of his early works
16:06and I've managed to persuade him to meet me here
16:10to explain its genesis and to show me around.
16:15Fernando now works with his son Pedro,
16:18who's joining us on this visit.
16:20Fernando, it's lovely to see you again.
16:22And Pedro, and I have to say that I first met Pedro
16:26when I think you were 12?
16:28I was 12, yes.
16:33Undulating rows of clipped hedges lap around the veranda
16:37like waves emerging from the pond.
16:43I really hadn't realised from the pictures
16:45is how the garden comes to life.
16:47The important part of the house was the veranda
16:50and the veranda is exactly in contact with the garden immediately.
16:54Can we walk around? I don't want to stand here looking at it.
16:57I want to be in it with you.
16:59Lead on. Show me your garden.
17:08The garden is set in a symmetrical grid
17:11around a central square.
17:13The garden is set in a symmetrical grid
17:16around a central square pond,
17:19creating separate areas with the rhythmic punctuation of cypresses,
17:24rising like green pillars.
17:28It struck me, walking in here and looking at it,
17:31there's something Islamic about it.
17:33Was that deliberate?
17:35No, it's really very natural,
17:37but geometry, light, water
17:42is so important in the Islamic garden also.
17:45And this garden is inside my memory and my tradition.
17:52Fernando Carancho's gardens are inspired
17:55both by the southern Spanish landscapes of his childhood
17:59and the 18th-century English landscape movement,
18:03where the gardens and surrounding landscape merge into one.
18:08And this garden was the first time
18:11that he used an agricultural crop as an integral part of the design.
18:18The wheat, we're here in April.
18:20That'll be harvested in weeks, May?
18:23Yeah.
18:24What about the rest of the year?
18:26Now this is beginning to be green and gold.
18:29After it's gold, we cut, and it's really a brilliant moment.
18:35The birds arrive to take the seeds, and it's full of life.
18:39Yeah.
18:40Do you think there is such a thing as a Spanish garden?
18:43I think there's two key factors that identify the Spanish garden.
18:47One is the light and the climate, so particular and so harsh,
18:51it really strikes you.
18:53And then I think the other factor is this mix of influences, you know,
18:57because you see some parts of the Italian garden,
18:59you see as well the Portuguese garden, how it's blending,
19:02and also the heritage, of course, of the Islamic garden
19:04is so important in Spain.
19:13To be shown round a mature, large garden
19:17by its designer and creator
19:21was an extraordinary opportunity and privilege.
19:25How connected the design was from inception
19:29right through every day of the year
19:31to the rhythms of the agricultural year.
19:37Mallorca has been a really good starting point
19:40for my exploration of southern Spanish gardens,
19:43but there is much more to see,
19:45and I need to move on now to the mainland
19:48and an extraordinary UNESCO site in the Alicante region,
19:54and from there, along the coast,
19:57and then north, up to the capital of Andalusia, Seville.
20:03And as I make my way southwards through Alicante,
20:06the landscape changes, and one plant starts to leap to the fore.
20:15It's very arid, very dry and parched,
20:19but palm trees everywhere,
20:21and obviously I knew there were palm trees here,
20:23but there are tens of thousands of them.
20:26It's absolutely not just the dominant tree, but the dominant plant.
20:36This is Elche, the home of El Palmaral,
20:40which is a huge expanse of date palms that dominate the city,
20:44which is, unsurprisingly,
20:46the self-styled world capital of palm trees.
20:54Date palms have been cultivated in huge plantations here
20:58continuously since Roman times,
21:00and there are still around 200,000 palms growing here today.
21:15Elche has parks and gardens where people can stroll
21:20under the shade of these giant palms,
21:23but the real story is here,
21:26because this is where the invading Arabs brought with them
21:32the skill and the technique and the knowledge
21:36of how to grow these plants,
21:38and that hasn't changed since the fourth century.
21:42What can look like a simple plantation or block of trees
21:46is, in fact, a series of very sophisticated palm orchards.
21:52The palm orchards were divided into units,
21:56and each owner had about ten of these small plots,
22:01and that was enough for a family to live off,
22:04and they all produced them in exactly the same way.
22:08So, in the middle of each square was a cereal crop, often wheat,
22:12and then in amongst them was a mid-story of fruit,
22:16citrus, pomegranates, really important, olives,
22:20and around the outside were the date palms,
22:23and that provided shade in summer and protection in winter.
22:33But by the end of the century,
22:36but by the 1960s,
22:38the owners found that they couldn't make a living this way
22:42and moved away to bigger farms in the countryside.
22:48So the local council then bought up 70% of the land,
22:52which they now use as a nursery
22:55for trees destined for the streets and parks.
23:00In the Arab world, dates were the most prized of all crops,
23:05and it's only the female date palm that bears the fruit,
23:09and you can see here the upright, very yellow-green fronds
23:14with little bubbles on them are next year's dates.
23:18And then you have this year's dates, very visible.
23:21Well, in fact, they haven't ripened properly
23:24because the harvest is from October to April.
23:27There's just one there that is ripe,
23:29and I think if I'm careful, I can pick it.
23:31If I go in here...
23:33There we are.
23:35Um...
23:37There it goes.
23:42OK.
23:44You can see it's quite an amber colour.
23:49That's good.
23:51But you can't have any dates at all
23:53if you don't have a male tree as well as a female one.
23:57This is a male tree with its flower,
24:00and if I knock it,
24:02you can see there's plenty of pollen on there.
24:10And that pollen will fertilise the female tree,
24:13so it bears fruit.
24:19All this growth depends upon a system of irrigation,
24:24and it was brought over from North Africa by the Arabs,
24:28who took the water from the River Vinaloku,
24:31channelled it down, and then once it reached the city,
24:34it became a web of channels coming to all of these orchards.
24:38And within the orchards, by using sluices,
24:41they could direct the water to particular fields.
24:45And this is exactly how it remains today.
24:54MUSIC CONTINUES
25:04A long drive takes me across the Sierra Nevada...
25:10..to my next garden, which is in the city of Malaga.
25:15MUSIC CONTINUES
25:23Malaga is now best known as a holiday resort,
25:26but away from the beaches and the hills behind the city
25:30is a fine garden.
25:37This is the Concepcion Botanic Garden,
25:40created by the Marques and Marquesa de Casaloring in the 1850s,
25:44in the grounds of what had been the family farm.
25:50They set about acquiring exotic plants from all over the world
25:54to create their own private botanical garden,
25:57naming it after their youngest daughter, Concepcion.
26:04And despite the dry Andalusian climate,
26:07its paths now wind up through lush, semi-tropical vegetation
26:12and magnificent mature trees.
26:19But the beauty of the plants is now accompanied by something else.
26:24MUSIC CONTINUES
26:35This mirror door was built in 1911,
26:39and the photos of the early 1920s
26:43show the family enjoying the uninterrupted vista to the sea.
26:49That view has changed utterly.
26:55But now, now you have the noise of not just one motorway,
27:00but other roads crisscrossing across the whole of the landscape.
27:04Houses as far as the eye can see.
27:07Factories.
27:09Cranes on the horizon, and just beyond them,
27:12there's a faintest smudge which I suppose is the sea.
27:15So this is the view of modern Spain.
27:25MUSIC CONTINUES
27:28However, not all of the coast of southern Spain
27:31has been polluted by buildings, traffic and noise.
27:37I've come along the coast to Estepona
27:40to see a project instigated by the local council.
27:47It's designed to counter this trend
27:50and restore some of the former charm of this part of the coast
27:54and make it a better place for the modern inhabitants to live in.
28:01The Esplanade in Estepona is now filled with families
28:05strolling freely with dogs and children...
28:10..creating a safe and handsome link between the town and the sea.
28:17But this is the result of a decade-long project
28:21to rescue the city from being a traffic-filled, car-dominated chaos
28:26to what amounts now to a huge communal garden.
28:36The streets of the old town in Estepona
28:39are lined with colourful pots draped with flowers,
28:43and whilst it might conjure up traditional Spain,
28:46in fact, it is all new.
28:50I would like to show you this street
28:52because this is like an example of what we did in the city.
28:57What was it like before?
29:00Well, you had cars going through and we didn't have all these plants.
29:05So it was just completely bare.
29:08Ines Paris-Fervera is a landscape designer
29:11who was on the committee that greened up Estepona,
29:14and Sergio Rodriguez is head gardener at the city council.
29:22To what extent did this involve the people that live here?
29:25They get involved from the beginning
29:28and they bought the colour of the pot
29:31because every street has a colour,
29:34and then decide,
29:36I prefer this plant or I prefer that plant.
29:39But what about maintenance?
29:41I mean, this is very hot, it's very dry, do you have to water them?
29:45In winter, we water once per week.
29:48In summer, sometimes we even have to water three times.
29:53And how many pots are there in all in the city?
29:56More than 16,000 we have.
29:58And each one watered individually?
30:01By hand? Yes.
30:04Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
30:06So we're looking at nearly 50,000 doses of water every week.
30:10Twice. Well, OK.
30:17In pursuit of this greening process,
30:20the whole geography of the town has been changed.
30:24The council even bought houses so it can knock them down
30:28and thus create more open planted spaces.
30:32In all, 14 kilometres have been restored
30:36and 135 streets renovated.
30:45Now, I confess, I don't know what these trees are.
30:48What are they?
30:50These trees are Bawinia variegata.
30:53That's what we call the orchid tree.
30:55The orchid tree, Bawinia. Yes.
30:57Have you noticed in the base of the trees...
30:59Now, what are these? What are they for?
31:01Every child that gets born, the family wants,
31:04they apply to the council and they say,
31:07we want to give father a tree for...
31:10So they adopt a tree. They adopt a tree.
31:12How much does that cost? Does it cost a lot?
31:14Nothing at all. It's free? It's free.
31:16It's just... It's the spiritual connection. That's it.
31:20It's a very beautiful idea. I like it.
31:29The greening of the city hasn't just been a question
31:32of putting in thousands of pots, it's an elaborate process.
31:35This square, for example, was a car park.
31:38But the car parking was put elsewhere and a garden made,
31:42not just some pots, but water features and trees in its place.
31:46The whole thing is an elaborate, grand scheme.
31:53What has been achieved here in Estepona is deeply inspiring
31:57and shows that where there is a will to improve the quality
32:00of communal life, there can be a way,
32:03even with all the complications of a city council.
32:18Much of this part of the coast is the playground of the rich
32:22and is full of luxury holiday homes.
32:28I talked to Ines about the sort of gardens
32:31these holidaymakers looked for,
32:34and she said she'd designed one herself that was further down the coast
32:38at Soto Grandi, and she could show it to me.
32:44Hi. Hello.
32:50With its courtyards, use of water as a central feature,
32:55and numerous pots, this is a modern take
32:58on the traditional Andalusian garden...
33:03..dressed with the trappings of wealth and luxury.
33:09You have a swimming pool, palm trees, the sea beyond. Yeah.
33:14This is a kind of holiday fantasy, isn't it?
33:17Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
33:20You have a lot of grass.
33:22Does that not create a problem for watering?
33:25Well, yes, but we choose drought-resistant grass.
33:30The property also has a well.
33:33So it has its own water supply. Yes, yes.
33:37Do you find that clients like this, demand lawns,
33:41they like them for their gardens?
33:43Yes, all, all, all the properties,
33:47most of the gardens here has big lawns, big space of grass.
33:53And do you think that's going to be sustainable,
33:57that that will be able to continue?
34:00Well, we try to use this drought-resistant grass,
34:06limit it to the close areas to the house.
34:11And does this stay green all the year?
34:15It's depending on the species of grass you are using.
34:19But some grasses came brown in winter.
34:23Some of the garden centrepiece use like a tint to tint the grass.
34:30Yes, yes. Do they?
34:32In the winter, just to give the visual of a green grass.
34:45I've come here, down the coast, just outside Marbella,
34:50because I've been told that behind these steel doors
34:54is a brand-new, modern garden that I really ought to come and see.
35:07This is a newly built house,
35:09and the designer of the garden, for now,
35:12And the designer of the garden, Fernando Matos,
35:15was given a free hand to create a garden to complement it.
35:24Sways of perennials sit amongst structural trees and clipped shrubs.
35:34And the result looks loose and informal,
35:37and yet is meticulously crafted.
35:43There is a lawn, but unusually,
35:46it's out of sight of the house, down at the bottom of the garden.
35:52I asked Fernando what visitors make of his work.
35:57They are surprised, because it's not common to have this variety of plants.
36:02He's inspired, very inspired, in English gardens.
36:06You're taking inspiration and then translating it?
36:09Yes, I use the Mediterranean tradition,
36:12the use of shade, water, structure in the garden.
36:16But I think with the right plants,
36:19you can have the effect of an English garden
36:23with this variety of plants,
36:25different flowering in different seasons,
36:28with only Mediterranean plants.
36:30There are a lot of salvias from Mexico,
36:33because they flower in July and August,
36:36so you can have flowers in the worst time of the year,
36:40which is summer with 40 degrees.
36:46The two gardeners, Paco and Roman,
36:49make sure it looks as good as possible all the year round.
36:53But Fernando is looking forward to seeing
36:56how the garden will be in ten years' time.
36:59The main thing will be that the trees will be mature,
37:03and that changes completely the atmosphere of the garden.
37:07I'd like to see it then. It'll be very good.
37:19I think it's really interesting to see
37:21that the inspiration for this garden has come from British gardens
37:25and then been applied using a completely different palette
37:28and range of plants.
37:30It's not a parody or a copy.
37:32It's something that is suited to this spot.
37:45The hot, dry climate in this part of Spain
37:48makes it a magnet for tourists,
37:50but it also puts it right on the front line of climate change.
37:54And it's fascinating to see how it's adapting to this
37:58through its gardens of all kinds.
38:02As I leave the coast, I'm stopping off on the outskirts of Marbella
38:06to visit a particular local project.
38:12This is the Marbella Arboretum,
38:15which is rather a grand name for what is a collection of allotments.
38:21It covers an area of two hectares
38:24that is subdivided into 130 separate plots.
38:29All of these are available free to local people.
38:35A little bit of basil. Hola. Hola.
38:38And on a Sunday morning, there's plenty of activity.
38:46Hola. Is this your plot here?
38:50And what are you growing here?
38:59How often do you come here?
39:17Do you share what you grow?
39:29And who is the boss? Is it you or is it him?
39:4412 years ago, the site was a rubbish tip
39:47and it took 60 large lorry loads to clear it.
39:53The idea of turning this into a green space
39:56is the dream child of Alejandro Orioli,
39:59who works here with his son, Ivo.
40:17So when people come here,
40:19do they always know what they want to do or do they have to learn?
40:27Alejandro provides all the garden tools and seeds,
40:31and he and his son are always on hand to give advice
40:34so that as many local people as possible
40:37have that opportunity to connect with nature.
40:56So, what will happen in the future here?
41:14It's a good plan.
41:26Alejandro told me that he'd thought long and hard
41:29and done lots of research on how he could make the biggest impact,
41:32and he came to the conclusion that it was letting people
41:36and empowering people to do practical things.
41:39So by coming here and giving them the opportunity,
41:43he is achieving something dramatic.
41:46If lots of us do small things, then we can make big change.
41:56I'm now going inland, going north, and aiming for the city of Seville.
42:04The drive takes me along a steep and windy road through dramatic mountains,
42:09and at the top of these is an historic city
42:12with a particular garden that I want to visit.
42:16I've stopped off on the road to Seville here at Ronda.
42:20Ronda was a Moorish stronghold, in fact, one of the last places to fall.
42:26And one of the reasons why it remained held by the Moors for so long
42:32was the gorge...
42:37..that in those days ran along one side of the town.
42:42Well, now it runs right through the middle of the modern town.
42:48This incredible, deep crevice splitting the town in two.
43:01And sitting right on the edge of it is a garden,
43:05which has a remarkable history.
43:09This building is Casardel-Reyn-Morra, the house of the Moorish king.
43:14Well, that is a bit of a misnomer,
43:17because actually it was built in the 18th century,
43:20and it was built by the first king of the Moors,
43:24and it was built by the first king of the Moors,
43:27and it is now the seat of the King of Seville.
43:30So, it's a bit of a misnomer,
43:32because actually it was built in the 18th century.
43:35That is a bit of a misnomer,
43:37because actually it was built in the 18th century,
43:40three centuries after the Moors had left.
43:43Then, in 1910, it was bought by one of the more remarkable figures
43:48in Ronda's history, the Duquesse de Passant,
43:52and she commissioned a garden.
44:00The Duquesse bought in the eminent French garden designer,
44:03Jean-Claude Forestier.
44:08He designed a garden that was completely in keeping
44:11with the Moorish inheritance of Ronda.
44:25This is based upon the Islamic paradise garden principles.
44:29So, you have water coming from a fountain
44:32and then this lovely long rill into a pond below.
44:38There's symmetry, there's order and balance.
44:43There's fragrance.
44:44Even from just running my hands along the myrtle hedge,
44:47you get this cloud of perfume rising up.
44:50And one of the really interesting things,
44:52even though this is a small garden,
44:55having these great big trees doesn't just create shade,
44:59which is important in this climate,
45:01but also makes the garden seem bigger.
45:09The property's agent is a businessman, Jochen Knie.
45:17I gather that the Duquesse de Passant
45:20was a rather extraordinary woman.
45:23She has been a very impulsive and creative person
45:28because she bought this property,
45:31bought some houses who occupied this garden,
45:35flew down the houses and created a romantic story here.
45:39So, where the garden is now, there were houses
45:42and she pulled them down to make the garden?
45:44Just to create the garden. Right.
45:46A major commitment.
45:47A major commitment.
45:49She also created a whole industry to restore the house,
45:52to create the house.
45:54She created lots of jobs and did also bring welfare to Rwanda.
46:00All the artefacts and decoration in the garden
46:03are thus locally produced.
46:06Well, except for one.
46:08The central Moorish fountain
46:10was brought by the Duquesse with her from Paris.
46:16The story of the garden remained remarkable,
46:18not to say extraordinary, right up to the time
46:21when Morgan himself came to own it.
46:24It's magic. It's a magic place.
46:26I think you probably will agree.
46:29So, I had to buy it.
46:31I had to buy it.
46:32I think a magic place, usually it's not for sale.
46:35The owner was an old lady,
46:37just living here in the corner of the same street.
46:41So, I visited her.
46:43We had a nice conversation.
46:45We have been talking like six hours
46:48about the Spanish Civil War and stories.
46:52She wanted to talk.
46:54And after I told her I want to buy a property,
46:57we agreed a price.
46:59And I gave her a cheque.
47:02And when she received the cheque, I asked her for a receipt.
47:06And we just took the paper which is over her glass of water,
47:11like a napkin.
47:13I took the napkin, did write the receipt.
47:15It was a contract, the receipt.
47:18And so the house has been sold.
47:20And the deal was done.
47:22Extraordinary story.
47:28Continuing my journey,
47:30I'm bound for the final destination on this trip, Seville.
47:34It sits 90km inland from the Atlantic coast,
47:38on the banks of the river Guadalquivir,
47:41and is the capital of Andalusia.
47:48It feels like a big, thriving city.
47:52It's got one of the biggest cathedrals in the world,
47:55royal and ducal palaces.
47:57And all this is based upon the fact that in the 16th century,
48:01Seville was one of the most important cities in the world
48:05because it was here that the wealth from the Americas came in.
48:09It all arrived at the port in Seville.
48:12And as well as the silver that financed the expansion
48:16of the Spanish empire,
48:18you had plants, potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, dahlias, sunflowers.
48:23These new plants that we now take for granted
48:27came here to Seville
48:29and then were spread out across the rest of Europe.
48:39Seville is very well known for its royal gardens.
48:42But on this trip,
48:44I was part of the process of trying to get under the skin of Spain
48:47through its gardens and visiting two privately owned palaces,
48:52both with a long and entwined history.
48:59The Casa de Pilatos was begun in 1483
49:04by the nephew of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
49:08Now, the Moors were still here in Andalusia,
49:12so their influence was absolutely dominant.
49:15So even though he was a Christian,
49:17this opening patio is completely Moorish.
49:21And there's not a trace of a plant here.
49:23This is certainly not a garden.
49:25However, the reason why he chose this site
49:29was because there was water,
49:31and when you have water, you can have a garden.
49:42The garden consists of two courtyards.
49:48The smaller one is typically Andalusian.
49:51It's bright, colourful,
49:53and filled with pots crammed rim to rim alongside the basins.
49:58The surface is constantly broken
50:01by the fountains that spill gently into them.
50:09What was unusual about this garden
50:11was that the water supply didn't come
50:14from the famous Moorish irrigation systems
50:17that actually were spread all over Andalusia,
50:20but from a Roman aqueduct.
50:22And the right to take the water from the aqueduct was very rare indeed.
50:26It was a special privilege.
50:28So, as a result, they could make a garden.
50:30And, in fact, the garden has been open from day one,
50:34not to admire the garden,
50:36but so people could come and collect water.
50:42The Casa de Pelotos is one of a number of properties
50:46owned by the Medinaceli Foundation,
50:48which was formed by the last person to live here,
50:51the Duquesa de Medinaceli.
50:56But it still has very strong links to the family,
50:59and the Duquesa's granddaughter Sol, Condesa de Ampurias,
51:03still lives nearby.
51:06Tell me, what's your earliest memory of here?
51:10Earliest memory here?
51:12Well, I guess I think I remember when, after school,
51:16so we would go to school from nine to three,
51:18and we would come to play in the gardens
51:20and rollerblade in the patio.
51:22Really? It was the funnest thing, yeah.
51:24It must have been incredibly good on that hard floor just whizzing round.
51:27Yeah.
51:29And the gardens, which are obviously lovely at this time of year,
51:34are they an important part of this?
51:37Do people come for the gardens?
51:39They do, because these gardens kind of portray
51:43how, in the 15th, 16th century, how Sevilla was built.
51:47Since we had all this Muslim inheritance
51:50from oriental architecture,
51:53in which the gardens look inwards.
51:56So it's kind of, when you're outside from this house,
51:59you don't know there's two big gardens,
52:01you don't know what to expect when you come in.
52:07The second courtyard garden is the larger of the two
52:11and consists of formal beds made into parterres
52:15and filled with clipped topiary.
52:22What I see is an Italian Renaissance garden.
52:26It's not at all Spanish in any detail, really.
52:29And that's because it was designed by an Italian.
52:33The then-owner of the house was made Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples,
52:37which was part of the great 16th-century Spanish Empire.
52:41And he imbued the culture of the Renaissance,
52:45which, of course, was at its peak then, in the 1560s and 1570s,
52:49and he hired a Neapolitan architect
52:52to come over and transform what was then an orchard.
52:56And he created this garden and built the buildings around it,
52:59and that's how it remains today.
53:01And, in fact, the family still has very strong links with Italy.
53:12Seville is a very green city.
53:18Gardens that were once part of private palaces
53:21are now public squares and parks.
53:27These provide surprisingly verdant spaces
53:31for the people of Seville to enjoy, as well as much-needed shade.
53:40This is the very lush Parque de Maria Luisa,
53:44in the middle of the city.
53:46One of the interesting facts about this park
53:49is that it was made by the same man, Forestier,
53:53who made the small garden in Ronda,
53:56belonging to the Casa del Rey Moro.
53:59And he made them at the same time, in 1911.
54:02So, on the one hand, he was fashioning
54:04that rather exquisite sort of paradise garden,
54:07and at the same time, this enormous, great, lush park.
54:15The second privately-owned garden I want to visit whilst I'm here in Seville
54:19is Palacio de las Dueñas.
54:24The original architecture was identical to the Casa de Pilatos,
54:29and that's because the palaces were built for two brothers,
54:32and their mother wanted to avoid any sibling rivalry.
54:36But while the buildings may have been the same,
54:38the gardens have evolved through time and different owners
54:42to become quite different.
54:44As soon as you walk in here,
54:46the contrast to Casa de los Pilatos is immediate.
54:51There you have this grand, rather austere, empty space,
54:56and here you're confronted with richness and colour.
55:02And also one other factor.
55:04You have in front of you, straight away,
55:07the hand of an individual, all over it.
55:12MUSIC
55:19Dueñas belonged to Cayetana Fitzjames Stewart,
55:2318th Duchess of Alba,
55:25who, despite the Anglicisation of her name, was very Spanish.
55:29And she was one of the richest women in Spain.
55:31It was said she had more land than even the king of Spain.
55:36This was her favourite home.
55:41And she was a dramatic figure.
55:43She was famous for her eccentricities, her lifestyle, her parties.
55:48Everything she did was notable, grand,
55:52and sometimes a little eccentric.
56:00She died in 2014 at the age of 88,
56:04but her presence is still very strongly felt in the garden.
56:09Above all, the Duchess adored colour,
56:12and would plant her favourite bright plants
56:15more or less at random throughout the garden.
56:19And there are many seats dotted here and there,
56:22so the Duchess could sit and entertain
56:25and relish the garden that she loved so much.
56:28And she shared that love with her gardeners.
56:32Prospero worked as a gardener for the Duchess for 25 years.
56:56Now that she's gone,
56:59do you keep the garden as she would like it?
57:02Do you think that she is watching you at work?
57:26Thank you. Thank you for talking to us.
57:29MUSIC PLAYS
57:34I've come to the end of this trip.
57:39I've been here in the very beginning of May,
57:42and it's been boiling hot, much hotter than it gets in England.
57:46And yet there are months of increasing heat ahead.
57:50And what we know is that climate change
57:53is making these conditions more extreme.
57:57What's happening here in Spain today
57:59is almost certainly going to affect us in the north of Europe tomorrow.
58:04And yet gardens are made, beautiful gardens.
58:12And what's most inspiring for me is to see the way
58:15that young gardeners and young garden designers
58:18are coping with these harsh conditions that are getting worse
58:23and yet still making beautiful and inspiring gardens.
58:29The next programme takes me to the north of Spain.
58:32Although perhaps less widely known than the south,
58:35its cooler climate and stunning landscape
58:38mean that it may well be the up-and-coming holiday destination.
58:53MUSIC FADES