Sacred Wood of Bomarzo .. Sojourn in Italy

BOMARZO: 16th century landscape populated by strangely compelling creatures, gods & goddesses carved in stone.

Bomarzo - Neptune (Alice Joyce photo)

The terrain of Bomarzo or Parco dei Mostri (Park of the Monsters) is a well-worn parkland today:  the price of admission yields a faded copy of a map. Yet, after having been abandoned for hundred of years, the 16th century estate of Prince Pier Francesco Orsini – called ‘Vicino’ – is open to the public to be experienced once more.

Imagine the astounding undertaking Orsini entered into when creating the setting, and you’ll be swept away by the Prince’s dramatic intent, unfolding along intricate, convoluted pathways: A theme that effectively rejected the dominant geometric formality common to gardens of the period.

Bomarzo's Dragon (Alice Joyce photo)

At the entrance to the woodland, an invitation is etched: “You who go wandering about the world in search of sublime and awesome wonders, come here where horrendous faces, elephants, lions, bears, ogres and dragons are to be seen.”

Bomarzo ..  ’Giants Do Battle’ – Hercules (Alice Joyce photo)

In Visions of Arcadia (Aurum, 1996), author, May Woods reflects on the playful character of one of Bomarzo’s stone beasts. The representation of a dragon with the wings of a butterfly. Woods suggests the depiction rests not in the creature’s diabolical nature, but rather in the role of protector, ensuring the purity of the fountain’s water.

Bomarzo Ogre (Alice Joyce photo)

Huge in size and impact, the landscape’s much photographed Ogre, albeit engaged in an apparent scream, houses a table where you can enjoy a picnic.

In the exoticism of the garden plan, Orsini presented an alluring challenge to his aristocratic guests – artists, poets, and intelligentsia of the day, to decode the symbolism, the iconography of mermaids, gods and monsters, populating the extravagantly theatrical setting.

Bomarzo (Alice Joyce photo)

Mask of Madness (Alice Joyce photo)

An elephant about to kill a warrior;  a mythological Orc carrying a globe of the world, topped by a model of the Orsini castle:

Melancholic or humorous?

Horrific or strangely compelling?

At the culminating point in one’s journey through the Prince’s gardens, you come upon a building of subtle beauty, The Temple of Divine Love; built in memory of Orsini’s wife by renowned architect, Vignola.