In a wooded vale in the Campagna north of Rome lies a fantastical garden. John-Paul Stonard meets its inhabitants.
John-Paul Stonard
The garden at Bomarzo was built in the sixteenth century by an Italian nobleman as a memorial to his wife Guilia. Populated by Fish-tailed Harpies, Fortified Elephants, a Grotto of Venus and a Mask of Madness, turtles, lions, dragons and bears, it was called a ‘sacred grove’ - Sacro Bosco, by its creator, Vicino Orsini (c.1513-84).
