Square Saint-Roch, Public park in central Le Havre, France.
Square Saint-Roch is a two-hectare park in central Le Havre situated between Georges Braque and Raoul Dufy streets. It features gardens, water features, and walking paths throughout its grounds.
In the early 16th century the site held a lazaretto and a chapel dedicated to Saint Roch, caring for plague victims until the hospital's opening led to its abandonment at the end of that century. From the late 18th century it served as Le Havre's cemetery; under the Second Empire the bodies were exhumed and moved to the Sainte-Marie cemetery to make way for a public garden, opened in 1868. A 4,000 m² aquarium installed there was removed in 1893, and the September 1944 bombardments destroyed 400 trees; the garden then served as a temporary cemetery during clearance of the ruined centre. Auguste Perret laid out the present square during the city's reconstruction.
The bandstand was built in 1900, and free concerts are still held there in summer. The garden's name comes from Saint Roch, to whom the chapel of the former plague hospice on this site was dedicated. The park also holds 18 varieties of roses and a Chilean rhubarb among its planting.
The park opens daily from 7 a.m. and is free to enter. It lies between the streets Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy and Othon Friesz, with its main opening onto avenue Foch to the south. In summer, free concerts are held at the bandstand.
The garden holds about thirty tree species, among them ginkgo, Atlas cedar, Himalayan cedar, purple maple, Japanese cherry and the Mexican orange blossom. A 4,000 m² aquarium once stood here; it was removed in 1893, long before the park was rebuilt by Auguste Perret.
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