WALTER STUCKI AVENUE

Bucolic Enclave

On fine days ornamental birds frolic there: swans, geese and ducks. A greenhouse and a dwelling for the janitor finalize this characteristic landscaping, late nineteenth-early twentieth century, which borders Walter-Stucki Street and its wealthy villas.

enclave

Bucolic

At the creation of the Napoleon III park, the current Rue Stucki was named Route Thermale No. 7 and then, in August 1883, Avenue des Cygnes in reference to the pools and its ornamental birds. In October 1944, it changed its name, as Vichy paid tribute to Walter Stucki, to whom the city owes its rescue from destruction by the Germans. The Swiss ambassador resided in Villa Ica from July 1940 to August 1944.
Bordered by the Napoleon III park, Stucki street aligns a series of about ten villas built at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, notably by the architects Percilly, Driffort or Simon. They all have different architectural styles and names: “Les saules”, “François 1er”, “Transvaal”, “les Origans” (1895), “Théo-Kate” (1893), “les Turquoises”. The latter, built in 1896, housed the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan consulates in 1914. The two hotels, Magenta and Pyrénées, have now been transformed into apartments. And, the first villa at the corner of Quai d’Allier and Rue Stucki, built, in 1934, by the architect Pierre Lefort, was the residence of Admiral Darlan.

Architectural influence

English style

Vichy did not escape the English romantic influence in vogue when an imperial decree signed by Eugene Rouher, vice emperor, “ordered” the development of the Allier parks in 1856. The Napoleon III park, which is the oldest, was developed in 1861 on the site of a secondary arm of the river dried up thanks to the construction of a dike. The works directed by the engineer Jean-François Radoult de la Fosse required 250,000 m3 of fill from the Allier. The landscape design was entrusted to Joseph Marie, a horticulturist from Moulin, and included native plantings (poplars, ash trees, chestnut trees, lime trees, etc.) and exotic plantings (catalpa trees, Judas trees, etc.), flower beds and huge lawns accessible to walkers.

A space with an atmosphere

romantic

in the same vein as those of the great Parisian parks (Buttes Chaumont, Parc Montsouris, etc.), nestles in this northern part of the park with its pools with water jets and ornamental birds. Postcards from 1902 illustrated with pink flamingos already show the tourist interest of the site. Between 1934 and 1936, the water features were enlarged and their surroundings enlarged, decorated with tree islands and rock gardens. A pontoon was created between the two. The small pond, now bordered by a bamboo grove, is populated with goldfish and carp brought by friends. In winter, the basins of the Napoleon III parks are prized by wild ducks that feast on the abundant pittance provided by walkers.

the green box

“The park has an arboretum value with rare trees, notes Dominique Scherrer, director of green spaces at the City of Vichy. Among more than 800 trees, there is a great diversity of species: cedars, redwoods, Canada snags, maples, caramel trees. They are so called because in autumn, their leaves smell like caramel. One of them borders the large pond. When the park was created, the central alley did not exist, it was an artificial river fed by two steam pumps that took water from the Allier. “It was removed in 1867, at the request of the mayor of Vichy who had complained about its inconvenience in terms of hygiene and mosquitoes. But the swan pool remained.”

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