Parc Borély has three different gardens; a Garden à la française, facing the bastide, composed of a two lawns, a circular basin and a rectangual basin, and double rows of trees, between the avenue du Prado and the gates of the park:
An English landscape garden, on the east side of the park, surrounding a lake, and decorated with statues, fountain, a cascade, and a playground. It also featured a miniature of the basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde.
A recently renovated race track. The other two parts of the garden connect to the sea by a promenade and to the neighboring botanical garden.
History
The park was created in the 17th century by a French ship owner and merchant, Joseph Borely, who bought land for a country house, the Château Borély, in the area of Marseille called Bonneveine. The estate was enlarged in the 18th century by Joseph Borély, who constructed a bastide, or Provençal country house, on the domaine. When Louis-Joseph Borély inherited the domaine in 1770, he commissioned the landscape architect Embry to create a Garden à la française.
In the middle of the 19th century, the land passed first to Paulin Talabot, director of the new PLM railroad which connected Paris to Marseille; and then the land was acquired by the city of Marseille. The city commissioned landscape architect Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand to design a park with three distinct parts; a French garden, an English landscape park, and a track for horse racing by the side of the sea. A number of wooden pavilions were constructed; just one remains, the former pavilion by the lake, which had also served as a botanical laboratory of the Institut Colonial.
From 1880 until 1915, the park was the site of a botanical garden, which moved to a different site adjoining the park. In 2002, a promenade of two hectares was laid out between the park and sea.
