Climbing up to ‘Promenade de l’Evéque Park, which dominates the city of Digne-les-Bains, is like responding to the mysterious magnetism of ‘high places’. One has the sensation of sharing the spirit of the earth, the sky and spontaneous nature with the departed priests of long ago. And as if to emphasize the holiness of the place, the historical stratifications of time and change reinstate a magnificent natural spell to the rock.
It is an exceptional site. You can admire the local architecture adapted to the rocky promontory and a view that was already being used to illustrate guidebooks at the start of the 20th century, with the Cathedral of Saint Jerome and the Clock Tower (1490). Its iron cupola was added in 1620, making the tower 50 metres high.
The park is located halfway between the ochre cliffs of Rocher de Neuf Heures and the bottom of the valley where the Acque Calde torrent flows. You reach it after climbing up and going through the old town set atop the rocky promontory.
As you gradually enter the site, you will be amazed by its diversity. You never have a total perspective of the place, but rather a series of partial views of both the vegetation and the architecture, including two factories (already evident in blueprints from the 18th century).
The arrangement of the spaces is the fruit of man’s labour, with the terraces and the enormous dry stone walls that sustain them.
The site has many fascinating and pleasing attractions, especially in terms of the views of the city that it provides. It is a wonderful example of all the criteria the dictionary uses to define a “beautiful view”: preeminence, extent, variety.
The garden of sun and shade boasts the presence of green oaks that have been the dominant species in the forests in Provence for millenniums, but also olive trees and a number of plants native to the calcareous hills.
Here you come to realize how the history of a garden is a constantly unfolding tale. It is the fruit of an ongoing adventure since it is subjected to the process of natural growth, to the work of man, and to such elements as water, air, and earth. At times its creators, at times its destroyers.