Hanging Gardens in Le Havre - Free Entry Guide

The Jardins Suspendus (Hanging Gardens) is a stunning 17-hectare botanical garden set within a 19th-century military fort overlooking Le Havre and the English Channel. Built between 1854-1858 to defend the harbor, the fort was transformed into a world-class botanical garden in 2008, named after the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon due to its terraced layout. Visitors can explore four thematic gardens representing North American, East Asian, Southern Hemisphere, and contemporary botanical collections, featuring over 4,000 plant varieties across five continents. The site includes impressive greenhouses with exceptional collections of begonias (260+ species), orchids, ficus, and succulents, along with a scented garden where fragrant plants release different perfumes throughout the day. The panoramic views from the ramparts are spectacular, offering sweeping vistas of the Seine estuary, the harbor, and the Normandy coast. The gardens are free to enter and open daily year-round (9am-8pm April-October, 9am-5pm November-March), while the greenhouses have a small €2 entrance fee and seasonal hours. Allow 1-2 hours for a complete visit; the uphill walk from the city center takes about 40 minutes.

Interesting Facts

The Jardins Suspendus is one of only 28 gardens in the world to hold the prestigious "Jardins Botaniques de France et des pays francophones" label. When it received this certification in 2017, it became the youngest botanical garden in the Francophone world to achieve this honor, just 9 years after opening to the public.

The fort that houses the gardens has a turbulent military history spanning nearly 150 years. After serving as an artillery barracks under Napoleon III, it was occupied by German forces from 1940-1945 during World War II, then housed the French gendarmerie mobile until 1979. The transformation from military fortress to peaceful botanical garden took nearly three decades of planning and construction.

The municipal greenhouses attached to the gardens produce an astounding 160,000 annual and biennial plants each year, which are used to beautify public spaces throughout Le Havre. This makes the site not just a tourist attraction, but a vital working facility for the city's green spaces.