Impressions at Sacro Bosco

Bomarzo, Italy

After a winding, hilly tour of the Lazian countryside, one eases onto a tree-lined driveway in the shadow of a threadbare Italian castle. Signs have led you here and another indicates an arrival, but rather than a grand vista or even a formal perimeter fence, the final destination lies ahead, shrouded in canopy and undergrowth.

Sometimes, it's good to take a step back. After studying and designing landscapes for a decade now, I have a habit of approaching every new landscape -- park, garden, or cityscape -- with my brain. The Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo is a landscape that speaks on multiple levels, and it is perhaps best experienced if you let your eyes, hands, and feet lead the way. (For reasons to be explored in my next post, Sacro Bosco is also known as "Villa Orsini," the "Gardens of Bomarzo," and the significantly more ominous "Parco dei Mostri" [Park of Monsters].)

To a visitor who might not have done their homework before arriving, Sacro Bosco, quickly reveals itself as a garden of fantastic ruins and fantastical sculpture, and it proudly displays the wear of unknown centuries.

Littered through a mature stand of woods, a haphazard arrangement of sculptures and architectural follies creates a high sense of drama. The garden toys with visitors through variations in enclosure and expanse, concealment and surprise, and an often astonishing sense of scale. At Sacro Bosco, I found more than mere moments of intrigue: brushing by wrestling giants, monsters of the sea, and archaic foreign etchings, I found myself in a cloud of mystery. Perhaps in part due to the age of the sculptures and the untamed topography, the grounds also held an air of adventure.

Like reading classic literature without the footnotes, there is a lightness to exploring Sacro Bosco without bothering with its backstory; but also like reading without footnotes, there is much that is lost. As I will explore in the next post, Sacro Bosco may be the last garden you would want to visit without doing your homework.

Bomarzo, Italy

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