Bomarzo
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| Bomarzo is a small town, located near Viterbo on the road to Orta. It is the Orsini family's hereditary fief. The Castle rises at the edge of this small town. The residence's gardens were created by Vicino Orsini, the Duke of Bomarzo. He was born in 1528 and died in 1588. An educated humanist, he was interested in the Arts and was their patron. He devoted his life to the happiness of his house and his wife, Julia Farnese. After Julia Farnese's death, he created the plan for a garden, Bomarzo Park. He didn't call this garden a giardino, but Bosco Sacro, a Sacred Grove or Bosco dei Monstri, the Monsters' grove. Monster must be understood in the Latin meaning of monstrare, which means to show and demonstrate. This then means that from stop to stop, from stage to stage, each element is a component of an immense, very neoplatonic poem to his lost love. To create this garden, he called on one of the greatest landscapers and architects of his time, Pirro Ligorio. All the Italian princes came to visit, as did innumerable foreign travelers. Unfortunately, as with most of the Renaissance gardens, the work was neglected. When it was revisited in the beginning of this century, it was overgrown with trees, everything was half collapsed, all of which merely gave the garden an even more fantastic aspect. It was at this time that André Pieyre de Mandiargue visited and wrote a sublime treatise on the sleeping garden of Bomarzo. |
In the region of Lazio, the marvellous land of the Etruscans, the Romans and the Middle Ages, lies the village of Bomarzo which shares all the glory of the region's illustrious history and possesses an historical site which is the only one of its kind in the world: "The Villa Of Marvels". In the gardens of other villas in Lazio you will find certain similirities, but the prototype of all these gardens remains the "Sacred Wood of Bomarzo", that popular fancy rebaptized as Monster's Park. Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, known as Vicino, wanted such a park "only to ease the heart". It was designed and laid out by the great architect, Pirro Ligorio, who was summoned to work at Saint Peter's in Vaticano after the death of Michelangelo. Without either Prince Orsini or Ligorio ever realizing it, a timeless masterpiece was born. When you visit this park you will go from surprise to surprise as animals and figures in stone suddenly appear: the Elephant that is about to kill a Warrior, the fighting Dragons, the Ogre in whose mouth you could pic-nic, Sleeping Beauty, Hercules tearing Cacus apart, Bears in ambush, animals with three heads, Neptune presiding figures, and finally a globe of the world balanced on the head of an Orc with a model of the Orsini Castle on top representing the power of his family. These sculptures carred out of massive boulders in situ, appearing to rise up out of the very ground as if by magic. It all goes back to the 16th Century (1552), the period which saw the development of an ideal of life between Prince and Courtier. This wood has inspired many important artists and poets of the time such as Annibal Caro, Bitussi and Cardinal Madruzzo wanted to express their wonder and wished to leave their "epigraphs and verses" carved here and there. After Vicino Orsini's death nobody cared any longer for this jewel of mannerist art and after centuries of oblivion has been saved and restored for the joy of intellectuals, men of letters, artists and tourists that come from all over the world to admire this splendid garden. The park of Monsters of Bomarzo was devised by the architect Pirro Ligorio (he completed the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome after the death of Michelangelo and built Villa d'Este in Tivoli) on commision of Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, called Vicino, only to vent the heart broken at the death of is wife Giulia Farnese. The Park of Monsters remained in oblivion till 1954 when it was bought by Mr Giovanni Bettini who with loving care has managed it. A visit to the park will unfold in a series of stages ranging between mythology and fantasy. |
| Bomarzo Park, a 16th century villa with grotesque stone sculptures of monstrous porportions, depiciting mythological personalities and creatures taken from classical fables: Pergasus, Hercules, Neptune, Cera. Prince Pier Francesco Orsini built the villa in 1552. Mourning the death of his wife, Giulia Farnese, he erected a temple and stauary in her honor on the grounds. The villa was designed by Architect Pirro Ligorio. Giovanni Bettini purchased the property in 1954, eventually opening it to the public. |