Bomarzo's Bizarre And Beautiful Monster Park

Bomarzo, a town in Latium in the lower valley of the Tiber, is most well-known for a highly unique attraction. Officially called the Gardens of Bomarzo, they are also referred to as the Sacred Garden, and that most descriptive of names, Bomarzo Monster Park. Created in the 16th century, the gardens are set in a forest at the bottom of a valley beneath Orsini Castle and feature bizarre and fantastical sculptures and small buildings alongside the natural beauty. If you feel like wandering through a Dali painting, this is just the thing for you! Find a luxury villa in Latium and you can explore this truly unique garden for yourself.

The garden was built by Pier Francesco Orsini, a warlord and great patron of the arts, after the death of his wife, to whom he was deeply devoted. Pirro Ligorio, the architect, painter, antiquarian and garden designer, is credited with the overall design and the sculptures are said to be by Simone Moschino. Typically Mannerist, the works intend to inspire awe and to astonish, with the choices in subject often bizarre and somewhat mysterious.

The pretty gardens are organised and typical of their time, making the monsters and creatures that spring forward seem even more surprising.

In one section of the garden, visitors can step inside the mouth of a colossal orc's head. Carved into his upper lip are the words, “ogni pensiero vola”, (every thought flies) but this originally read, “Lasciate ogni pensiero voi ch'entrate” (Abandon all thought, ye who enter here). This plays on Dante's famous inscription over the gate to the underworld in “Inferno” which said “hope” in place of “thought”.

Visitors are encouraged to lose all sense of reality and become immersed in the fantastical landscape around them.

Begun in 1552, with the verses and inscriptions added a decade later, the garden was forgotten over time. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the gardens became neglected and overgrown. The Bettini family took on the restoration of the garden in the 1970s and, though it remains private property, it is now a very popular tourist site.

Highlights that you won't want to miss include the poignant mausoleum dedicated to Orsini's wife (the only “normal” aspect of the gardens). Other high points are the Leaning House, which proves popular for photographs and is rife with posing opportunities, and Hannibal's Elephant, who is shown in the process of capturing a Roman soldier. If you are ever in Latium, you really must stop by. You can be guaranteed to never see anything like the Bomarzo Gardens again.