Parc de la Pépinière, Public park in central Nancy, France
Parc de la Pépinière is a 21.7-hectare public park in central Nancy, near Place Stanislas. Its straight paths cross at right angles, dividing the grounds into sixteen former nursery beds. A central fountain sends up a tall jet flanked by shorter ones, and a purple beech over six metres around has been labelled a remarkable tree.
The site began in 1765 as a royal tree nursery under Stanislas Leszczyński where plants were grown and cultivated. In 1835 it became a public park while keeping its distinctive grid-based layout.
The name comes from the tree nursery that once operated here, and its wide paths still follow the orderly pattern established during its royal garden days. Today, monuments and pavilions scattered throughout remind people of the place's past and shape how they move through it.
The park lies beside Place Stanislas, along Place de la Carrière and the old fortifications, and covers 21.7 hectares, about 1.45% of Nancy. Its perpendicular paths still trace sixteen cultivation squares, so a walk follows the old nursery grid. The animal area now keeps only domestic species, with blue peacocks, crowned cranes and white storks as exceptions.
The animal area is a former menagerie that once held lions, crocodiles and brown bears. Its best-known resident was Jojo, a chimpanzee born in 1951, arrived in 1963 and dead in 2012 at 60, then the oldest chimpanzee in captivity in Europe; an alley inaugurated on 10 December 2022 bears his name and crosses the enclosure where he lived.
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