Lloret de Mar Town Council and Lloret Turisme travelled to Florence (Italy) on 25 and 26 May to take part in the 6th European Forum of Historic Gardens. Under the title “A Europe of United Gardens”, the auditorium of the Uffizi Gallery hosted representatives of the 47 gardens that make up this network, whose main objective is to preserve and disseminate the cultural and historical value of these gardens, as well as to exchange experiences and create joint projects. For Anna Fuentes, Director of Cultural Heritage at Lloret Town Council, “holding this forum in Florence, which boasts one of the world’s most renowned historic gardens, the Boboli Gardens, demonstrates the importance and European recognition that this project has been consolidating”.
During the forum, various presentations were given on the idiosyncrasies of the different historic gardens and part of the day was also devoted to issues of sustainability and gardens, specifically linked to the issue of water management in the context of the drought that is affecting the world. On 26 May, the 6th Annual Assembly was held at which the hitherto president of the Association of European Historic Gardens and former mayor of Lloret de Mar, Jaume Dulsat, handed over the presidency to Mr. Lukasz Przybylak, until now vice-president and who will act as acting president until the next elections of the Board of Directors of the association in 2024. For Jaume Dulsat it has been “an honour to promote this network together with Aranjuez in 2016 and to see how today it already has the recognition of European Cultural Itinerary by the Council of Europe and brings together the main historic gardens of Europe”.
The Spanish ambassador to Italy, Miguel Ángel Fernández Palacios, attended the forum and was able to meet with representatives of the various historic gardens of Spain from Mallorca, Galicia, Madrid, Catalonia and Castilla y León.
About the European Route of Historic Gardens
In 2016, Lloret de Mar Town Council (with the Santa Clotilde Gardens), in collaboration with Aranjuez Town Council and the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Laboratory of the University of Barcelona, created the European Network of Historic Gardens. A network that currently brings together more than 47 European gardens and organisations.
In September 2020 the European Historic Garden Route Association was listed as a European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe.