Joaquín Carvallo (1869–1936) was a Spanish

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

medical research Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as experimental medicine, encompasses a wide array of research, extending from "basic research" (also called ''bench science'' or ''bench research''), – involving fundamental scientif ...

er born in Don Benito (Spain), who acquired and restored

Château de Villandry The Château de Villandry is a grand country house located in Villandry, in the ''département'' of Indre-et-Loire, France. It is especially known for its beautiful gardens. History The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as '' ...

and the creator of its spectacular

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s, recovering the French soul of the construction from 1536. Joaquín Carvallo studied in the Universidad Complutense de

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and became a brilliant doctor. He travelled to Paris to work in the team of Dr

Charles Richet Charles Robert Richet (25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France known for his pioneering work in immunology. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on ...

, who was honored with the Physician

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

in 1913. While working with Richet's medical research team he met by chance an intern from Lebanon, Pennsylvania called Ann Coleman, who inherited an important business. She felt in love with the Spanish doctor while discussing the war that the US was launching against Spain to conquer Cuba (1898). The couple left Paris and found a peaceful place to live with their eldest daughter, Isabelle and their three younger sons, where they built a splendid Spanish art collection from the 17th century, that Carvallo and Coleman. It can be admired today on the walls of the castle (including the work of artists like Zurbarán, Alonso Cano, Juan de Arellano, & Berruguete). Thanks to Anne Coleman's money after years of searching, they bought the

in the

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it ...

in France's Loire Valley and began the dream of Joachim Carvallo of restoring and improving the once magnificent château and its French styled gardens. Today, the gardens are a major tourist attraction, visited by the public at large and horticulturalists from around the world. Henri Carvallo, the doctor's great grandson, is the owner of Villandry and continues to enhance and expand the château's gardens.

Sources

In 2004, Alix de Guitaut-Vienne published a history of the doctor's lifelong work on the château in a book titled ''Joaquín Carvallo et l'Oeuvre de la demeure historique'' (). {{DEFAULTSORT:Carvallo, Joachim 1869 births 1936 deaths 19th-century French physicians 20th-century French physicians Spanish landscape architects Spanish medical researchers 19th-century Spanish physicians 20th-century Spanish physicians French landscape architects French medical researchers