Nettuno, Parco, Bomarzo

Speranza



The Scaro Bosco is in the ghostly region which was for so long the dividing line between Rome and Etruria.

The wild garden lies in a boulder-strewn valley below the steep escarmpent on which the village of BOMARZO stands, and the sculptures which fill it have been hewn out of the living rock.

After having been forsaken for centuries, the valley was turned into a garden by Duca Perifrancesco ORSINI (who preferred to call himself Vicino) in 1560.

It is known that Vicino was a friend of Cardinal Madruzzo who owned the Villa Chigi at Soriano nearby, and he must have seen the giant figure of a woman with goat-legs carved from the rock.

This may have inpsired the sculpture in the "Sacro Bosco".

Perhaps also the fact that the Duca had just lost his wife Giulia may have influenced the character of this strange garden.

There is a tradition that Vignola built the little folly temple at Bomarzo, which is nearly all portico.