“There was a rich man, a very rich lord, living in a big house surrounded by green woods just outside little village of Bomarzo (Viterbo province).
The rich man had a fervent imagination and used to make long walks in the garden near the big house bringing with him adventures’ books of nymphs and mermaids, of dwelling giants and horrific marine animals, of far away lands, so far from the big house and unknown to him.
The rich man had a wife, a very beautiful lady, who loved gardens and flowers. He loved her so much. Unfortunately, one day she got sick and died.
The rich man was inconsolable and a veil of sadness covered the big house till he stopped crying and decided to honor his beloved in the only way he knew: with fantasy. The rich man decided to turn the big house in a “Wonders’ Villa”.
He called the most important sculptor of the region and ordered him to full the house’s park with statues from imaginary worlds and bizarre constructions never seen before. Once the artist finished the work, the rich man addressed the unreal garden to his wife and kept walking across the park remembering her with nymphs and goddesses.”
I think handkerchiefs are needed at this point!
Actually no one knows a lot about the inventor of Bomarzo marvellous park, prince Orsini, but for sure, only a beautiful love story as this one could have brought to life this unique and unreal garden, the Monsters’ Park of Bomarzo (or Sacro Bosco).
It actually seems a nineteenth-century version of a fun fair! Despite the fact that instead of roller coaster we have the crooked house, and in place of horror houses there are giant monsters here and there! Not even water games are missed! Fountains, small lakes and streams flow all over the garden guarded by nymphs’ statues.
The prince actually succeeded in living us gobsmacked for astonishment!
A surreal place where, asleep under the musk, among climbing ivy, animals and mythical creatures seem still alive, like petrified from a spell, waiting to be waken. And stories tell also ghost of prince Orsini uses to come back here for a walk among his imaginary friends.
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