Unesco is continuing its momentum.
After the Cordouan lighthouse, Nice, Japan, it is a monument of Brazil to integrate the list of universal heritage of Unesco.
Nestled in a bucolic setting in Rio de Janeiro, the former home of Brazilian Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994), who revolutionized landscaping with his tropical gardens, is now listed.
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“It was Burle Marx's botanical and landscape experiments laboratory. It was here that he understood how the species he planted in his gardens
worked,
”
Suzana Bezerra, one of the guides who work in the old farmhouse transformed into a museum, told AFP. The property, which covers 400,000 m2, was still, at the time of its purchase, surrounded by the Mata Atlantica, the lush tropical forest native to the Brazilian coast. It is now integrated into the Barra de Guaratiba district, a semi-rural area in the west of Rio.
Exuberant palms, bromeliads, araceae with giant leaves and bright colors: the site's gardens have more than 3,500 tropical and sub-tropical species.
Son of a German Jewish immigrant and a Brazilian of French origin, Burle Marx was one of the pioneers of ecology and one of the first to use native flora for his gardens rather than plants from Europe.
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He discovered dozens of species during his expeditions and designed more than 3,000 parks and gardens, public and private, most of them in Brazil.
He also took part in the design of the capital Brasilia, a futuristic city created ex-nihilo and classified as a World Heritage Site in 1987.
This place, which he lived in for twenty years, is the 23rd site in Brazil to be distinguished by Unesco, whose 44th session of the World Heritage Committee is being held from Fuzhou (China).
The site of the landscape architect Robert Burle Marx was placed on the Unesco World Heritage list on Tuesday, July 27.
MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP