Living memory of a forgotten sanatorium
Located at the foot of the Lac-Édouard sanatorium, the Jardin des Soupirs is a rare and precious example of hospital gardens laid out in early 20th-century Quebec. Established in a context of care and convalescence, this garden is part of a humanist approach to medicine that valued the benefits of contact with nature, horticultural work and living beauty to accompany healing.
Unlike a purely ornamental garden or a rigid landscape composition, the Jardin des Soupirs has a semi-structured character, adapted to the site and its occupants. From the outset, it was bordered by a white stone pathway leading to the main entrance of the hospital building. This structuring axis led to a concrete garden pond, still visible today, which formed the symbolic and contemplative heart of the garden. With its sharp angles and robust design, this basin features drain holes to regulate water overflow. Its remarkable preservation bears witness to the great architectural and functional rigor of its design. Aquatic plants such as sagittaria, horsetail and water iris were probably grown here for both ornamental and medicinal purposes.
One of the country’s first therapeutic gardens
Born around 1910 in the heart of the Haute-Mauricie region, on the shores of Lake Édouard, the Jardin des Soupirs is one of the oldest examples of a therapeutic garden in Quebec. Conceived in the immediate vicinity of the province’s first sanatorium, it bears witness to an era when nature, light, calm and horticultural work were integral to the care of tuberculosis sufferers. In the harsh climate of zone 2B, on a high plateau 400 meters above sea level, this garden flourished for half a century as a space of beauty and resilience. From the very first years of the sanatorium, donations of plants, flowers and shrubs poured in. A cement water basin with a fountain, a wooden kiosk and a majestic flower-lined avenue called Allée des Soupirs were laid out. Scots pines were planted for their reputedly healing fragrance. Patients, staff and even nuns take part, planting, tending and observing. The garden becomes a refuge, a care tool and an extension of the hospital building. The garden’s architecture is in keeping with a therapeutic vision inherited from European models, particularly Swiss and French, where gardens were conceived as spaces for gentle circulation, sun exposure and contemplation. The layout was simple but carefully defined: straight paths lined with perennial flowers, unobstructed views from the resting galleries, organized around focal points such as the pond, fountain or kiosk. The garden was therefore not a decorative park, but a space structured according to the principles of hygiene, sunlight and calmness conducive to healing. The garden was part of a coherent architectural ensemble: the main sanatorium, a three-storey wooden building with open galleries, faced the garden and oriented patients outwards. Other pavilions, such as the women’s pavilion, completed the layout. The garden was thus a functional extension of these buildings, as much a place for walking as for resting or active therapy. Although no formal layout plan has been preserved, the garden was well thought-out. Period photos show a concern for harmony, accessibility and plant diversity. The garden was an integral part of the sanatorium’s architectural and therapeutic project, until its heyday in the 1930s, when over 200 patients and 100 staff lived there in self-sufficiency. Abandoned when the sanatorium closed in 1968, the space was slowly reclaimed by the boreal forest.
The Belles of yesteryear
But in 2013, Ferme Boréale Lac-Édouard bought the site and set about restoring its agricultural and horticultural heritage. The garden is reborn: the pathway is cleared, the pond restored and the buildings rebuilt. More than thirty ancient species are planted.
identified, some of which are rare or exotic (such as a Chartreux carnation from the Caucasus). These plants are multiplied and replanted by the owner, himself a nurseryman. Today, the Jardin des Soupirs is at a turning point. Its history, the species it has rediscovered and the structures still in place warrant a complete restoration that is sensitive, scientific and artistic. A project is envisaged for its future: a garden of memory, biodiversity and modern horticultural therapy, in harmony with the restored sanatorium buildings.
The entire site, at an altitude of around 400 metres and exposed to a rigorous zone 2A climate, has been home to a range of plant species, some of which have survived for more than a century. A contemporary inventory revealed a wealth of flora: common lilacs, old peonies, sweet mints, rustic chives, ancestral rhubarb, giant scabious and tawny daylilies – all linked to the history of horticultural cultivation in Quebec in the first half of the 20th century.
Columbines, which today form vast, multi-hued carpets, seem to have been left to their own devices for over fifty years. Spontaneous cross-breeding has produced varieties of great chromatic diversity, from deep violet to variegated lavender, suggesting a mixed origin between Aquilegia vulgaris and its European horticultural varieties, cultivated since the 19th century in convent gardens.
An architectural garden
The layout of the garden was also part of a larger architectural logic: paths lined with large hybrid poplars formed long perspectives, inspired by French therapeutic gardens. The choice of trees, their alignment, the presence of benches and the view of the lake were all designed to accompany the walk, the pause and the observation.
The hospital architecture itself interacted with the landscape. Built of wood and then brick, the sanatorium stood on a hillock, oriented to maximize light and healthy winds. The garden below became an extension of care, an extension of the built environment through living things.
