#Urban GardensAs part of LUGA, an exploratory garden and orchid greenhouse will be set up at the Pescatore Foundation.
A project in partnership with the Pescatore Foundation.
Did you know that in the middle of the 19th century, the largest private collection of orchids in Europe belonged to a Luxembourger?
He was Jean-Pierre Pescatore (1793-1855), a Luxembourg businessman and philanthropist. He is best known for having financed the Fondation Pescatore, the retirement home in Luxembourg City. Having emigrated to Paris in 1837, he acquired the Château de La Celle Saint-Cloud in 1844, where he built, among other things, a famous orchid greenhouse with over 2,000 orchids, including more than 700 different varieties, attracting all of Parisian high society. Emperor Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon I) and Empress Eugénie were among the visitors.
Alongside Pescatore, his eminent patron, Jean Linden (1837-1898), also born in Luxembourg, provided him with several species of orchids discovered in Central America during his expeditions, such as Lüddemannia Pescatorei or Uropedium Lindenii. Linden also published an iconography of his orchid collection entitled Pescatorea, which can be consulted at the Luxembourg National Library.
The Fondation J.-P. Pescatore, located in the heart of the city, is an institution that is more than a hundred years old and a pioneer in the field of retirement homes. It was created in the will of Jean-Pierre Pescatore, who paved the way for the construction of a charitable establishment on the territory of the City of Luxembourg.
