In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.
Eighteenth-century English landscape gardening and French landscape gardening often featured mock Roman temples, symbolising classical virtues. Other 18th-century garden follies imitated Chinese temples, Egyptian pyramids, ruined medieval castles, abbeys, or Tatar tents, to represent different continents or historical eras. Sometimes they represented rustic villages, mills and cottages, to symbolise rural virtues.Yves-Marie Allain, Janine Christiany, L'art des jardins en Europe, Citadelles & Mazenod, Paris, 2006. Many follies, particularly during times of famine, such as the Great Famine in Ireland, were built as a form of poor relief, to provide employment for peasants and unemployed artisans.
In English, the term began as "a popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder", the Oxford English Dictionary's definition.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989, vol VI, p4, "Folly, 5". Follies are often named after the individual who commissioned or designed the project. The connotations of silliness or madness in this definition is in accord with the general meaning of the French word ; however, another older meaning of this word is "delight" or "favourite abode"." ... and many French houses are still named "La Folie"" – OED. This sense included conventional, practical buildings that were thought unduly large or expensive, such as Beckford's Folly, an extremely expensive early Gothic Revival country house that collapsed under the weight of its tower in 1825, 12 years after completion.
As a general term, "folly" is usually applied to a small building that appears to have no practical purpose or the purpose of which appears less important than its striking and unusual design, but the term is ultimately subjective, so a precise definition is not possible.
Characteristics
The concept of the folly is subjective and it has been suggested that the definition of a folly "lies in the eyes of the beholder". Typical characteristics include:
They have no purpose other than as an ornament. Often they have some of the appearance of a building constructed for a particular purpose, such as a castle or tower, but this appearance is a sham. Equally, if they have a purpose, it may be disguised. They are buildings, or parts of buildings. Thus they are distinguished from other garden ornaments such as sculpture. They were built or commissioned for pleasure.
History
Follies began as decorative accents on the great estates of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, but they flourished especially in the two centuries that followed. Many estates had ruins of monastic houses and (in Italy) Roman villas; others, lacking such buildings, constructed their own sham versions of these romantic structures.
However, very few follies are completely without a practical purpose. Apart from their decorative aspect, many originally had a use which was lost later, such as hunting towers. Follies are misunderstood structures, according to The Folly Fellowship, a charity that exists to celebrate the history and splendour of these often neglected buildings.
Follies in 18th-century French and English gardens
Follies () were an important feature of the English garden and French landscape garden in the 18th century, such as Stowe and Stourhead in England and Ermenonville and the gardens of Versailles in France. They were usually in the form of Roman temples, ruined Gothic abbeys, or Egyptian pyramids. Painshill Park in Surrey contained almost a full set, with a large Gothic tower and various other Gothic buildings, a Roman temple, a hermit's retreat with resident hermit, a Turkish tent, a shell-encrusted water grotto and other features. In France they sometimes took the form of romantic farmhouses, mills and cottages, as in Marie Antoinette's Hameau de la Reine at Versailles. Sometimes they were copied from landscape paintings by painters such as Claude Lorrain and Hubert Robert. Often, they had symbolic importance, illustrating the virtues of ancient Rome, or the virtues of country life. The temple of philosophy at Ermenonville, left unfinished, symbolised that knowledge would never be complete, while the temple of modern virtues at Stowe was deliberately ruined, to show the decay of contemporary morals.
Later in the 18th century, the follies became more exotic, representing other parts of the world, including Chinese pagodas, Japanese bridges, and Tatar tents.Yves-Marie Allain and Janine Christiany, L'art des jardins en Europe, Citadelles & Mazenod, Paris, 2006.
Famine follies The Great Famine of Ireland of 1845–1849 led to the building of several follies in order to provide relief to the poor without issuing unconditional handouts. However, to hire the needy for work on useful projects would deprive existing workers of their jobs. Thus, construction projects termed "famine follies" came to be built. These included roads in the middle of nowhere, between two seemingly random points, screen and estate walls, piers in the middle of bogs, etc.Howley, James. 1993. The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Examples
Follies are found worldwide, but they are particularly abundant in Great Britain.
Australia Eastlink hotel, in Victoria
Austria Roman ruin and gloriettes, in the park of Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna
Belgium Hassenspark toren in the Hassenspark(nl) in Vilvoorde, Flemish Brabant
Canada Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario
Czech Republic
Series of buildings in Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape (UNESCO World Heritage Site) Chinese Pavilions in chateau gardens in Vlašim, Děčín Krásný Dvůr
France Chanteloup Pagoda, near Amboise Désert de Retz, folly garden in Chambourcy near Paris, France (18th century) Parc de la Villette in Paris has a number of modern follies by architect Bernard Tschumi. The Ideal Palace of Ferdinand Cheval in Hauterives, seen as an example of naive architecture. Hameau de la Reine, in the park of the Château de Versailles The Grottoes of Ferrand, in Saint-Hippolyte, Gironde
Germany Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe water features Lighthouse in the park of Moritzburg Castle near Dresden Mosque in the Schwetzingen Castle gardens Pfaueninsel artificial ruin, Berlin Ruinenberg near Sanssouci Park, Potsdam
Hungary Bory Castle at Székesfehérvár Taródi Castle at Sopron Vajdahunyad Castle in the City Park of Budapest
India Overbury's Folly, Thalassery, Kerala Rock Garden of Chandigarh
Ireland
Ballysaggartmore Towers, County Waterford Carden's Folly Casino at Marino Conolly's Folly and The Wonderful Barn on the same estate The Corrig Spire in Portarlington, County Laois Killiney Hill, with several follies Larchill in County Kildare, with several follies Powerscourt Estate, which contains the Pepperpot Tower Saint Anne's Park, which contains a number of follies Saint Enda's Park, former school of Patrick Pearse, contains several follies The Jealous Wall at Belvedere House near Mullingar, County Westmeath Waterloo Round Tower near Blarney, County Cork
Italy La Scarzuola, Montegabbione The Park of the Monsters (Bomarzo Gardens) Il Giardino dei Tarocchi near Capalbio
Jamaica Three follies were built on Folly Estate, Port Antonio, in 1905. They are now in ruins. Follies Magazine #108, "My Folly Folly Folly: a Jamaican Journey"
Malta
Lija Belvedere Tower
Poland
Roman aqueduct, Arkadia, Łowicz County Temple of the Sibyl in Puławy
Romania Iulia Hasdeu Castle
Russia Ruined towers in Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina, and Tsaritsino Creaking Pagoda and Chinese Village in Tsarskoe Selo Dutch Admiralty in Tsarskoe Selo
Spain
El Capricho, Comillas (Cantabria)
Ukraine
Ruins in Oleksandriia, Bila Tserkva
United Kingdom England
Scotland The Caldwell Tower, Lugton, Renfrewshire Captain Frasers Folly (Uig Tower) Isle of Skye Dunmore Pineapple, Falkirk Hume Castle, Berwickshire Kinnoull Tower, Perth McCaig's Tower, Oban, Argyll and Bute National Monument, Edinburgh Shaw Monument, Prestwick The Temple near Castle Semple Loch, Renfrewshire Binns Tower near House of the Binns, West Lothian
Wales
Clytha Castle, Monmouthshire Derry Ormond Tower, Ceredigion Folly Tower at Pontypool Paxton's Tower, Carmarthenshire Portmeirion, known as the setting for several television productions including The Prisoner series Gwrych Castle, Conwy County Borough
United States
Bancroft Tower, Worcester, Massachusetts Belvedere Castle, New York City Bishop Castle, outside of Pueblo, Colorado Chateau Laroche, Loveland, Ohio Coral Castle, Homestead, Florida Hofmann Tower in Lyons, Illinois Kingfisher Tower, Otsego Lake (New York) Körner’s Folly, Kernersville, North Carolina Lawson Tower, Scituate, Massachusetts Maryhill Stonehenge Memorial, Maryhill, Washington Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California The Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee Vessel, New York, New York Watts Towers, Watts, Los Angeles
See also Folly Fellowship Garden hermit Goat tower Grotto Lustschloss Novelty architecture Ruin value
References
Bibliography
Barlow, Nick, et al. Follies of Europe, Garden Art Press, 2009, Barton, Stuart. Monumental Follies Lyle Publications, 1972 Folly Fellowship, The. Follies Magazine, published quarterly Folly Fellowship, The. Follies Journal, published annually Folly Fellowship, The. Foll-e, an electronic bulletin published monthly and available free to all Hatt, E. M. Follies National Benzole, London 1963 Headley, Gwyn. Architectural Follies in America, John Wiley & Sons, New York 1996 Headley, Gwyn & Meulenkamp, Wim. Follies — A Guide to Rogue Architecture, Jonathan Cape, London 1990 Headley, Gwyn & Meulenkamp, Wim. Follies — A National Trust Guide, Jonathan Cape, London 1986 Headley, Gwyn & Meulenkamp, Wim., Follies Grottoes & Garden Buildings, Aurum Press, London 1999 Howley, James. The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1993 Jackson, Hazelle. Shellhouses and Grottoes, Shire Books, England, 2001 Jones, Barbara. Follies & Grottoes Constable, London 1953 & 1974 Meulenkamp, Wim. Follies — Bizarre Bouwwerken in Nederland en België, Arbeiderpers, Amsterdam, 1995 Stewart, David. "Political Ruins: Gothic Sham Ruins and the '45." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Vol. 55, No. 4 (Dec. 1996), pp. 400–411.
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