Bomarzo

Infobox CityIT
img_coa =bomarzo-stemma.gif
official_name = Comune di Bomarzo
name=Bomarzo
region = Lazio
province = Viterbo (VT)
elevation_m = 263
area_total_km2 = 39.89
population_as_of = 2001
population_total = 1615
population_density_km2 = 40.49
timezone = CET, UTC+1
coordinates = coord|42|28|N|12|14|E
frazioni = Mugnano in Teverina
telephone = 0761
postalcode = 01020
gentilic = Bomarzesi
saint = St. Anselm
day = April 24
mayor = Stefano Bonori
website = [http://www.comunebomarzo.it/ www.comunebomarzo.it]
mapx=42.5
mapy=12.23

Bomarzo is a town and comune of the province of Viterbo (Lazio, central Italy), in the lower valley of the Tiber. It is located at 15 kilometers from Viterbo and 68 from Rome.

History

Its current name is supposed to come from the Roman-era "Polymartium" of uncertain meaning.It was a historical fief of the Orsini family, whose castle is at the edge of the densely-built town, until Marzio sold it to the Lante family in 1645.

Park of the Monsters

Bomarzo's main attraction is a garden (located at coord|42|48|N|12|25|E) usually referred to as the "Bosco Sacro" (Sacred grove) or, locally, "Bosco dei Mostri" ("Monsters' Grove"), named for 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, called "Vicino" (1528–1588), a condottiero and patron of the arts, greatly devoted to his wife Giulia Farnese (daughter of Galeazzo Farnese Duke of Latera, not to be confused with Giulia Farnese); when she died, he created the gardens. The design that has been attributed to Pirro Ligorio, a well known architect of the time.

The park of Bomarzo was intended not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist works of art, its symbolism is arcane: examples are a large sculpture of one of Hannibal's war elephants, which mangles a Roman legionary, or the statue of Ceres lounging on the bare ground, with a vase of verdure perched on her head.

The many monstrous statues appear to be unconnected to any rational plan and appear to have been strewn almost randomly about the area, "sol per sfogare il Core" ("just to set the heart free") as one inscription in the obelisks says.

Allusive verses in Italian by Annibal Caro, Bitussi and Cristoforo Madruzzo, some of them now eroded, were inscribed besides sculptures.

The reason for the layout and design of the garden is largely unknown: perhaps they were meant as a foil to the perfect symmetry and layout of the great Renaissance gardens nearby at Villa Farnese and Villa Lante. Next to a formal exedra is a tilting watchtowerlike casina, the so-called "Casa Storta" ("Stunted House").

An octagonal templet was added about twenty years later to honor the second wife of Orsini, Giulia Farnese.

During the nineteenth century and deep into the twentieth the garden became overgrown and neglected, but in the 1970s a program of restoration was implemented by the Bettini family, and today the garden, which remains private property, is a major tourist attraction.

The surreal nature of the Parco dei Mostri appealed to Jean Cocteau and the great surrealist Salvador Dalí, who discussed it at great length. The poet André Pieyre de Mandiargues wrote an essay devoted to Bomarzo. Niki de Saint Phalle was inspired by Bomarzo for her "Tarot Garden". The story behind Bomarzo and the life of Pier Francesco Orsini are the subject of a fascinating novel by the Argentinian writer Manuel Mujica Láinez (1910-1984), "Bomarzo" (1962). Mujica Láinez himself wrote a libretto based on his novel, which was set to music by Alberto Ginastera (1967). The opera "Bomarzo" premièred in Washington in 1967. In Argentina the opera was banned by the military dictatorship, but in the USA both Mujica Láinez and Ginastera were awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

References

*cite book|title=Guida al Parco dei Mostri|publisher=Società Giardino di Bomarzo|location=Vitorchiano|year=2002
*Elli Mosayebi, Christian Mueller Inderbitzin "Bomarzo - Beobachtungen anhand einer neuen Karte", Institut für Landschaftsarchitektur, ETH Zürich, 2005, ISBN 3-906441-06-7

External links

* [http://www.discoversoriano.com/html-photo-galleries/catid,11/ Pictures of the monster park from DiscoverSoriano.com]
* [http://www.bomarzo.net/index_en.html The Park of the Monsters] it icon en icon
* [http://cyberitalian.com/html/gal_36.htm Gaither Stewart, "The eighth wonder of the world: Bomarzo"]
* [http://digilander.libero.it/epiur/bomarzo.htm Il parco dei Mostri di Bomarzo: Pegaso group article]
* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Viterbo/Bomarzo/Bomarzo/home.html Thayer's Gazetteer of the Lazio]
* [http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Jardin/bomarzo.intro_english.html J.E. Berger Foundation: Bomarzo]
* [http://www.gardener.ru/?id=1394 Bomarzo gallery]