The ERHG held its General Assembly on April 6 in Lloret de Mar, integrating the Van Buuren Gardens into its network

With this adhesion, there are already 38 gardens and nine countries that make up the Association. In the same Assembly, Budapest was chosen as the venue for the 5th Annual Forum of Historic Gardens and the Hungarian Garden Heritage Foundation, members of the Association, as its hosts.

In addition to the approval of its Annual Report and Economic Report, one of the points discussed that should be highlighted was the unanimous decision to offer free membership conditions to the Ukrainian garden "Sofinkya", once peace is restored and it is possible to contact their representatives.

Discover the history of the Van Buuren Gardens

The van Buuren Museum’s Picturesque Garden was designed by Jules Buyssens (1872-1958), an internationally renowned landscape architect, and developed between 1927 and 1928, even before the villa, an art deco jewel in the Dutch style, was built. The rose garden took from 1930 to 1935 to complete.

Later on, from 1958 onwards, René Pechère (1908-2002), a former apprentice of Buyssens, who created the gardens for the 1958 World Exposition in Brussels, which Mrs van Buuren was in awe of, was regularly consulted for advice and design tips for the gardens. A number of years later, after the purchase of additional plots, Mrs van Buuren asked him to design the Maze, which was inaugurated in 1968, and the Heart Garden, inaugurated in 1970, two major components of the garden.

From an European perspective, the restoration of the Picturesque Garden of the Villa Van Buuren ensures the preservation of the total work, that is, the garden and the royal residence, with its remarkably homogeneous architecture and art deco interior, as well as an impressive example of the sophistication of that time, where collectors and philanthropists David and Alice van Buuren lived. The Picturesque Garden of the Villa van Buuren is one of the few remaining private gardens created by Jules Buyssens, internationally renowned landscape architect, theorist and prolific author of articles on this Belgian movement between 1913 and 1940. It remains the only testimony to the movement Belgian New Picturesque Garden.

The New Picturesque Garden was an artistic movement based on principles that articulated the transition between the horticultural world of the 19th century and the ecological approach of the 21st century. Few of the gardens created by René Pechère during the 1960-1970 period are currently listed; in fact, many large public gardens have been transformed or have had to give way to other things.

In 1924 the gardens were just 26 acres, today they cover 1.2 ha.

After Alice van Buuren's death in 1973, it was the Van Buuren Foundation, which Alice had created before she died, who took over the management of the gardens and the Villa. It is thanks to this donation that the property was able to survive unscathed for decades and that the structure of the gardens, initially made by Jules Buyssens in the late 1920s and later by René Pechère in the late 1960s, could be preserved. That is extremely rare.

These days, the van Buuren Museum and Gardens Foundation, comprising the Villa, art deco interior, furnishings, art collections and gardens bequeathed by philanthropists David and Alice van Buuren, has gained worldwide recognition.Since 1997, the gardens are classified and protected. The house and its art collection were protected in 2001.