Jardin des Prébendes d'Oé, Public garden in Tours, France

Jardin des Prébendes d'Oé is an urban park in Tours featuring curved pathways, decorative ponds, and bandstands surrounded by a variety of tree groupings. The layout creates different areas within the larger green space, each with its own character.

The garden was laid out between 1872 and 1874 on marshy ground crossed by the canalised Ruisseau de l'Archevêque, on the site of market gardens whose revenues, the prebends, went to the provost of Oé under the Ancien Régime. The project, adopted after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, was entrusted to Eugène Bühler and employed workers left jobless by the economic crisis that followed the war.

The name comes from medieval prebends, which were properties given to cathedral canons in the Middle Ages. This origin reflects how sacred land eventually became a place for public leisure and enjoyment.

The garden is open daily year-round with extended hours during warmer months. Wear comfortable walking shoes as the pathways can vary in condition depending on the season.

The garden's name comes from the prebends, the revenues of the market gardens that occupied this marshy site under the Ancien Régime and were paid to the provost of Oé. The stream of the Archevêque once crossed the land; the city had it channelled. The Bühler brothers' plans also placed bald cypresses on the central island, a water feature traditional in their designs.