11 May 2018
Palazzo Patrizi
At the heart of a beautiful century-old park at the foot of the Tolfa mountains, on the site of an ancient Etruscan and Roman settlement, lies the estate of Castel Giuliano, belonging - as of 1546 - to the Patrizi family.
Long and painstaking renovation work carried out by the present owners has restored the ancient buildings and the park surrounding them to their long-forgotten splendour.
Unfolding on wide gently sloping turfed terraces, the park results of the harmonious fusion of unspoilt vegetation and careful research into botany and landscaping, in a clever interplay of nuances and colours: cluster pines, oaks, and century-old Lebanon cedars tower above sweet-smelling herbs and flower-laden bushes, highlighting the contrast between unruly nature and nature as interpreted by man.
Numerous Etruscan tombs and ruins of Roman walls covered in ferns and lichen will certainly not escape the notice of the careful visitor.
The truly unique feature of the garden, though, is the extraordinary collection of roses for which Marquise Umberta Patrizi has long had a real passion. Castel Giuliano boasts what is possibly one of the most important private rose gardens to be found in Italy (every year in May there is the famous Feast of the roses).
The severe outline of the ancient castle walls stey softened by hundreds of old climbing roses, while combinations of shrubbery and foxglove, myrtle and pale blue ceanothus fill the great spaces surrounding the castle itself.
Long and painstaking renovation work carried out by the present owners has restored the ancient buildings and the park surrounding them to their long-forgotten splendour.
Unfolding on wide gently sloping turfed terraces, the park results of the harmonious fusion of unspoilt vegetation and careful research into botany and landscaping, in a clever interplay of nuances and colours: cluster pines, oaks, and century-old Lebanon cedars tower above sweet-smelling herbs and flower-laden bushes, highlighting the contrast between unruly nature and nature as interpreted by man.
Numerous Etruscan tombs and ruins of Roman walls covered in ferns and lichen will certainly not escape the notice of the careful visitor.
The truly unique feature of the garden, though, is the extraordinary collection of roses for which Marquise Umberta Patrizi has long had a real passion. Castel Giuliano boasts what is possibly one of the most important private rose gardens to be found in Italy (every year in May there is the famous Feast of the roses).
The severe outline of the ancient castle walls stey softened by hundreds of old climbing roses, while combinations of shrubbery and foxglove, myrtle and pale blue ceanothus fill the great spaces surrounding the castle itself.
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A rose's rarest essence lives in the thorn.- Rumi - |
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