Majorelle Gardens

About Majorelle Gardens

Art museum garden in Marrakesh, Morocco

The Majorelle Garden is a one-hectare botanical and artist's garden in the Gueliz district of Marrakech, created by the French painter Jacques Majorelle over nearly forty years from 1923, after he came to Morocco to recover his health and fell for the city. At its centre is a Cubist villa designed by Paul Sinoir in the 1930s, painted the intense cobalt now known worldwide as Majorelle blue. Around three hundred plant species from five continents grow here, above all giant cacti and succulents, along with lotus pools, palms, bamboo groves and fountains, set off by yellow and green pots and paths. In the 1980s the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé bought and restored it, opening it to the public; it now welcomes around 600,000 visitors a year. The blue villa houses the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, a beautifully presented collection of jewellery, costume and objects from across Morocco, and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, opened in 2017, is a few steps away.

Where:

Marrakech, Morocco

Travel guides

• Marrakech: A Real Guide to the Medina, Food and Day Trips