Italy is home to some truly unique and beautiful parks and gardens. However, most still confirm to certain aesthetics; green manicured lawns, pathways, fountains, trimmed hedges, neat flowerbeds, and more. While these stunning outdoor spaces are well worth exploring in their own right, if you are in search of a more specific and singular yet equally stunning garden and you have found a vacation rental in Sicily, then we recommend a visit to the Kolymbetra Garden in Agrigento, on the South Coast of Sicily.
Kolymbetra Garden, or Giardino della Kolymbetra, is a very Sicilian kind of garden. Located in the heart of the Valley of the Temples, and often overlooked but readily visited if you are already at that other famous attraction, it is a lush and fragrant space that hosts all sorts of events. The landscape of this area is made up of almond and olive tree groves, with irrigated citrus groves and orchards cutting through this. Kolymbetra is an example of an irrigated citrus garden but also boasts great historical and archaeological value. Situated in a small valley to the west of the Hill of the Temples, nestled between the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vulcan, the six hectares of garden are framed picturesquely by these great monuments of the distant past. It is also mentioned in ancient records, noted as the site of a Greek pool mentioned by Diodorus Siculus in the first century AD as the place where Carthaginian slaves were brought in to build aqueducts that delivered water to the sumptuous pool that they also built in the area. While this artificial lake has long since been destroyed and disappeared, the land remained fertile and the profitable fishing industry that had thrived there when it was a fish hatchery was replaced by the Moors with a business based on abundant trees yielding delicious fruits.
Kolymbetra Garden, or Giardino della Kolymbetra, is a very Sicilian kind of garden. Located in the heart of the Valley of the Temples, and often overlooked but readily visited if you are already at that other famous attraction, it is a lush and fragrant space that hosts all sorts of events. The landscape of this area is made up of almond and olive tree groves, with irrigated citrus groves and orchards cutting through this. Kolymbetra is an example of an irrigated citrus garden but also boasts great historical and archaeological value. Situated in a small valley to the west of the Hill of the Temples, nestled between the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vulcan, the six hectares of garden are framed picturesquely by these great monuments of the distant past. It is also mentioned in ancient records, noted as the site of a Greek pool mentioned by Diodorus Siculus in the first century AD as the place where Carthaginian slaves were brought in to build aqueducts that delivered water to the sumptuous pool that they also built in the area. While this artificial lake has long since been destroyed and disappeared, the land remained fertile and the profitable fishing industry that had thrived there when it was a fish hatchery was replaced by the Moors with a business based on abundant trees yielding delicious fruits.
While this is not a carefully groomed pleasure garden but a lush botanical garden and a place designed as a working space to be farmed and harvested from (though it has been enjoyed as both and served both functions for centuries now), these trees have made this land impossibly lovely and pastoral. Visitors can wind through orange, lemon, almond, loquat, mulberry trees, and many other varieties of fruit-bearing trees, savouring the heady perfume of the different fruits and other blooms that hangs heavy in the air during the summer months. As one comes through the entrance gate to the garden, which is in front of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, a fragrant rosemary hedge is the first thing to welcome them. A visit to this garden, therefore, is a truly wonderful and multi-sensory experience. Furthermore, these trees change throughout the year and offer different experiences for the visitor depending on the time of their visit; heavy with scent and flavour when they bear fruit, fragrant and colourful with flowers when they bloom with blossoms. In addition to the trees, there are more than 300 different labelled species of plants (including staples of Mediterranean shrubbery such as myrtle, mastic, terebinth, broom, phillyrea, euphorbia, buckthorn, and dwarf palm) interspersed between the olive, citrus, and fruit trees to be discovered and admired in this little slice of paradise on earth.
From the founding Moors, the garden went to the local church in the 16th century and became a pit-stop for those on the Grand Tour through the 17th to the 19th centuries. When the water supply dried up in the 1980s, however, it fell into disrepair. Luckily, Kolymbetra Garden is now managed by the FAI (Italian Environment Fund) and was reopened to the public in 2001 after a grand restoration project, using parts of the original irrigation system. Throughout the year it plays host to exhibitions, receptions, musical events, special parties and celebrations, and food festivals and on a daily basis is a space that welcomes visitors to enjoy the shade, the scents, and the stunning surroundings.
So, if you have found a vacation rental in Sicily or avacation rental on the South Coast of Sicily near Agrigento and are exploring this uniquely striking landscape in Italy and the iconic ancient ruins dotted around it, then be sure to be one of the number of the cleverer travellers that makes a point of setting aside some time to visit the stunning Kolymbetra Garden.
Giardino della Kolymbethra
Viale Caduti di Marzabotto, 92100 Agrigento AG, Italy
+39 335 122 9042
faikolymbethra@fondoambiente.it
Opening Hours:
Open daily from 10am to 5.30pm.
From the 26th of October to the 8th of November, the gardens close at 3pm.
Last admission is 30 minutes before closing.
Note: Access is subject to the entry time slots provided by the Archaeological Park of the Valley of the Temples and it is possible to buy a combined ticket that allows access to both the Valley of the Temples and the Garden of the Kolymbethra. Click this link to book in advance or buy your ticket for just the garden at the entrance when you arrive.
Last tickets can be purchased one hour before closing.
Guided tours can also be arranged.
Ticket Prices:
Full-price tickets, €6 (Combined ticket with the Valley of the Temples access, €17).
Reduced-fee tickets (for children between 6 and 18 years of age), €2 (Combined ticket is free).
Children up to 5 years of age, free entry (Combined ticket is free).
Students up to 25 years of age, €4 (Reduced EU citizens/students combined ticket for those between 18-26, € 11).
Note: There is a picnic area surrounded by citrus trees overlooking the Garden that can be used by visitors wishing to eat their own packed lunches. However, in order to use this space is a mandatory contribution fee of €2 per person to cover maintenance and waste disposal costs in the area. It can be booked for the time slots: 12.15pm, 1.15pm, and 2.15pm by contacting the Garden at faikolymbethra@fondoambiente.it.
