Discover Bomarzo

Bomarzo is a town and comune of about 1,700 people in the province of Viterbo, in north-western Lazio, in the lower valley of the Tiber between Lazio and Umbria. It lies 14.5 kilometres east-north-east of Viterbo and 68 kilometres north-north-west of Rome.

Its main attraction is a garden, usually called the Sacro Bosco — the Sacred Grove — or locally the Bosco dei Mostri, the Monsters' Grove, named after the many larger-than-life sculptures, some carved in the bedrock, which populate a predominantly barren landscape.

It is the work of Pier Francesco Orsini, called Vicino (1528–1588), a condottiero and a patron of the arts. He was greatly devoted to his wife Giulia Farnese, daughter of Galeazzo Farnese, Duke of Latera, and when she died he created the gardens. The design has been attributed to Pirro Ligorio, a well-known architect and antiquarian of the time.

The intent is unusually explicit: the park was intended not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist works of art its symbolism is arcane.

Bomarzo was a historical fiefdom of the Orsini family, whose castle stands at the edge of the densely built town, until it passed in the mid-1640s to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere, who was elevated to the title of Duke of Bomarzo.

What is the Sacro Bosco? A sixteenth-century garden, locally the Bosco dei Mostri or Monsters' Grove, named for the many larger-than-life sculptures — some carved in the bedrock — that populate a predominantly barren landscape.

Who made it, and why? Pier Francesco Orsini, called Vicino (1528–1588), a condottiero and patron of the arts. He was greatly devoted to his wife Giulia Farnese, and when she died, he created the gardens.

Who designed it? The design has been attributed to Pirro Ligorio, a well-known architect and antiquarian of the time.

Why is it so strange? Because it was meant to be. The park was intended not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist works its symbolism is arcane.

Is there a plan to it? The statues appear unconnected to any rational plan and strewn almost at random — sol per sfogare il Core, "just to set the heart free", as an inscription on an obelisk says. The reason for the layout remains largely unknown.

What should I look for? One of Hannibal's war elephants mangling a Roman legionary; Ceres lounging on the bare ground with a vase of fruits on her head; the Casa Storta, a tilting building beside a formal exedra; and the small octagonal temple added about twenty years later for Giulia Farnese.

Is it connected to the other gardens nearby? Possibly as an opposite. One suggestion is that it was meant as a foil to the perfect symmetry of the great Renaissance gardens at Villa Farnese in Caprarola and Villa Lante at Bagnaia.

Was it always open? No. It became overgrown and neglected through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, and was restored from the 1970s by the Bettini family. It remains private.

Where does the name Bomarzo come from? Disputed. The current name derives from Polymartium, first mentioned in Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum, with the etymology polis martium, city of Mars — though archaeological evidence for a Roman city has not been found. Another proposal makes it a hydronym, from a marsh formed by the local torrent.

What else is in the territory? The Etruscan Pyramid, the tagliate and necropoleis, the ruins of a Roman aqueduct, and the kilns of the Volumni.

How far is it? 14.5 km east-north-east of Viterbo; 68 km north-north-west of Rome.