Formal gardens are an outward expression of a great estate’s grand design. By imposing order and symmetry on nature, their designers sought to delight—and impress. And impress they did!

The Palace of Versailles’s gardens are integral to its overall design. Louis XIV’s principal gardener and landscape architect, André Le Nôtre, organized the gardens on two axes, creating the illusion of an infinite vista called “the Grande Perspective.”

In 18th-century England, a new perspective emerged: While Palladian order and symmetry defined such great country houses as Blenheim Palace, the English landscape designers used great artifice to imitate nature. Their rolling parklands, punctuated by copses, reflecting pools, fountains, ponds, and serpentine lakes, were all as rigorously composed as a great symphony.

Lancelot “Capability” Brown, England’s greatest gardener, compared his designs to the structure of a sentence: “There I make a comma, and there, where a more decided turn is proper, I make a colon; at another part, where an interruption is desirable to break the view, a parenthesis; now a full stop, and then I begin another subject.”

Herewith, we present a few sentences on five homes with magnificent formal gardens designed in the French and English traditions, and some exquisite variations on our theme.

1. 19th-Century Château in Cognac, France

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Magnificent formal parkland sets the tone for the grandeur within this château in the Cognac wine region of southwestern France.

Built in 1880, the ornate 13,509-square-foot limestone residence has retained its original Belle Époque splendor.

The imposing entrance hall, with exquisite marble flooring, reveals a staircase with intricate metalwork, spiraling to the upper floors, where 13 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms await (11 en suite).

Further appointments include a chef’s kitchen, a wine cellar, a gym, and a seminar room ideal for large-scale events. The palatial reception rooms are appointed with stone fireplaces, wide-plank wood floors, and high, decorative ceilings. Custom furnishings and bespoke light fixtures throughout add to the grandeur.

A caretaker’s cottage and several listed outbuildings, configured as offices, garages, and two houses, are surrounded by more than six acres of wooded parkland with a swimming pool, a tennis court, and, a stone’s throw from the riverbank, an enchanting private island.

2. The Castle of Torre Alfina in Acquapendente, Viterbo, Italy

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The Castle of Torre Alfina lies at the heart of Lazio, close to the border of Umbria and Tuscany.

This magnificent medieval castle has over the centuries served as a strategic stronghold, a noble residence, and a cultural center.

The castle is composed of five towers: a central watchtower and four defensive turrets forming a quadrangle.

The imposing entrance gates lead through to a gallery embellished with marble floors, vaulted ceilings, statuary and frescoed walls that tell of its storied past.

The upper floors include the piano nobile, with its scenic gallery, library, dining hall, and grand reception rooms. The rooms within the five towers all offer panoramic views.

The gardens, reimagined in the Renaissance style in 1882 by French master architects Henri and Achille Duchêne, offer an elegant and refined setting that intertwines the past with the present. Within are cascading water features, colorful flowerbeds, boxwood hedges in geometric designs, and an enchanting secret garden.

3. 19th-Century Estate in Kapellen, Belgium

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This country estate encompasses about 22 acres in the Flanders region of Belgium, about 20 minutes’ drive from the city of Antwerp.

The thatched main house, along with the guest house and the caretaker’s residence, offer a combined 11,108 square feet of living space artfully reimagined by Axel Vervoordt.

Celebrated landscape architect Jacques Wirtz of Wirtz International designed the gardens in collaboration with Vervoordt. A fountain lies at the center of the ensemble, a mix of formal gardens, woodlands, a circular swimming pond, and verdant lawns for sports and recreation.

The beautiful outdoor kitchen allows for the organization of garden parties or grand-scale events. The stables could also be reconfigured as an events space or leisure complex.

4. Kenah Hill in Killiney, County Dublin

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Kenah Hill sits in stately, Italianate splendor on nearly three wooded acres in Killiney, south Dublin County. There, its welcoming, circular forecourt and three-tiered fountain are set within castellated stone walls and an electronic gate.

Just inside the entry, the grand foyer’s cantilever staircase ascends to six upper-floor bedrooms. A seventh bedroom on the lower ground floor has a galley kitchen, wine cellar, and games room.

Built in 1871 and renovated to 21st-century luxury standard, its 10,000 square feet of interior space preserve the Victorian craftsmanship of corniced ceilings, gilded paneling, hand-painted wall treatments, and elegant bay windows with sea views.

Grandly scaled reception rooms and a formal dining room are served by the bespoke kitchen, with its grand Aga range and a breakfast room, where French doors open to a sunny sandstone dining terrace.

Stone steps descend to the lawns and glass pavilion, a “crystal palace” housing the heated pool, solarium and service bar. Just below, a fenced, all-weather tennis court and a greenhouse wait among the gardens and elevated sea-view terraces.

5. Villa Lulu in Beverly Hills, California

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Villa Lulu is a singular, spectacular estate set on 2.7 verdant acres in the secluded, star-studded enclave on a private road off lower Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills. Its private gates and sweeping drive introduce the resplendent gardens by acclaimed landscape architect Robert Truskowski.

The elegant curves of its façade open to reveal the vision of its owner, the casino and resort developer Steve Wynn, who acquired the home in 2015 and reimagined it in collaboration with Los Angeles architect William Hablinski and former Wynn Resorts interior designer Roger Thomas.

Wynn set out to create a personal resort, not just a home. Wynn Resort-grade amenities include a full gym/exercise room, a spa and wellness suite, a media room, an Oscar-worthy screening room with tiered couch seating for 25-plus, and a vast wine room with temperature-controlled storage.

A swimming pool with an air-conditioned lanai pool house, a pro-grade tennis court, and an air-conditioned spectator-viewing pavilion with a kitchenette complete the picture.

Find your dream home with a formal garden here.