Versailles Gardens

New Providence


This hushed, symmetrical formal garden is the last thing you expect to find on bling-lovin’ Paradise Island, but here it is. The terraced landscape is lined with statues depicting great men throughout the ages, including Napoleon, Franklin D Roosevelt and a 12th-century Hercules. The garden’s big photo op is the Cloisters, a rectangular stone colonnade built by Augustinian monks in 14th-century France. Huntington Hartford purchased it from newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and had it shipped piece-by-piece to the Bahamas.

Now owned by the upscale Ocean Club, the gardens are technically off-limits, but nobody seems to mind respectful visitors ignoring the 'No Tresspassing' signs.


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