Jardin Majorelle

The Majorelle Garden is a small botanical garden in Marrakesh, Morocco, about one hectare (two acres) in size. It was made by the French painter Jacques Majorelle, who started work on it in 1923 and kept growing it for almost forty years. Today it is open to visitors and is best known for its bold cobalt-blue buildings among cactuses, palms and other plants.

The strong blue is the garden's trademark. It is called Majorelle Blue after the artist, who took his inspiration from coloured tiles he saw around Marrakesh and from the robes worn by Berber people. He even patented the colour before he died. Later the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent saved the garden and gave it a second life.

Who made the garden?

Jacques Majorelle was sent to Morocco around 1917 to recover from an illness and fell in love with the colours and street life of Marrakesh. In 1923 he bought a plot beside a palm grove and built a house. In the 1930s he hired the architect Paul Sinoir to design a Cubist-style villa. He kept buying land and filling it with plants, and the garden became his life's work. In 1947 he opened it to the public and charged a fee to pay for its upkeep.

From neglect to museum

After Majorelle's divorce in the 1950s the property was sold and the garden slowly fell into disrepair. In the 1980s the designer Yves Saint Laurent and his business partner Pierre Bergé bought it and worked to restore it. Today the villa holds the Berber Museum, and a separate Yves Saint Laurent Museum opened close by in 2017. The garden is open to visitors.

On the globe

Find Marrakesh in Morocco, North Africa, and look for the garden's famous Majorelle Blue colour.