History
This incredible garden is in Gardone Riviera, in the splendid context of Lake Garda. It is considered to be a true ecological ensemble without equal in other parks and botanical gardens. In fact botanical species from all over the world, from the Alps to the Himalayas, from Mato Grosso to New Zealand, from Japan to Australia, Canada and Africa all coexist in roughly 10,000 square meters. An exceptional collection, made even more extraordinary by the fact that every species is inset into its natural environment, has been created with great care and many difficulties.
The objective of naturalness and love of spontaneous landscape is the unifying element of the garden in which different environments mingle, including rivulets, waterfalls, pools for Koi carp, trout and reflections of dragonflies, dolomitic stone hills beside cacti and ivy-covered towers. This variety blends harmoniously with the structures created in the garden and is enriched by contemporary sculptures and scenic effects. Thus visitors have the opportunity to undertake an unusual trip combining nature and art, both at international standards, between sculptures by artists such as Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Mimmo Paladino, Erwin Novak, Susanne Schmoegner and Rudolph Hirt alongside Indian and Moroccan sculptures.
André Heller, an Austrian poet-artist, has been the custodian of this paradise since 1989, while his predecessor Doctor Arthur Hruska, medical dentist to the Tsar, the Savoy family and other famous personalities, bought the land around 1901 and built the garden between 1912 and 1914.
