Sacro Bosco di Bomarzo
"Voi che pel mondo gite errando vaghi di veder meraviglie alte et stupende venite qua, dove son facce horrende, elefanti, leoni, orchi et draghi."
The Sacro Bosco, also called Park of the Monsters of Bomarzo, is a Manieristic garder located in Bomarzo, in the province of Viterbo, in northern Lazio, Italy.
The garden was created during the 16th century, beneath the castle of Orsini, and populated by sculptures, and small buildings, located among the natural vegetation.
The park's name stems from the many larger-than-life sculptures, some sculpted in the bedrock, which populate this predominantly barren landscape. It is the work of Pier Francesco Orsini. The design is attributed to Pirro Ligorio, and the sculptures to Simone Moschino.
During the 19th century, and deep into the 20th, the garden became overgrown and neglected, but after the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí made a short movie about the park, and completed a painting actually based on the park in the 1950s, the Bettini family implemented a restoration program which lasted throughout the 1970s, and today the garden, which remains private property, is a major tourist attraction.
