page_title: Folly
section_title: See also
hierarchical_section_title: Folly / See also
caption_attribution_description: Palais idéal, Hauterives, France
context_page_description: 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 garden ornaments usually associated with the class of buildings to which it belongs.
  Eighteenth-century English landscape gardening and French landscape gardening often featured mock Roman temples, symbolising classical virtues. Other 18th-century garden follies represented Chinese temples, Egyptian pyramids, ruined abbeys, or Tatar tents, to represent different continents or historical eras. Sometimes they represented rustic villages, mills, and cottages to symbolise rural virtues. 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 OED's definition, and were often named after the individual who commissioned or designed the project.
context_section_description: List of garden features
  English garden
  Folly Fellowship
  French landscape garden
  Garden hermit
  Goat tower
  Grotto
  Novelty architecture
  Ruin value
caption: Palais idéal – Hauterives, France
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