Description
Villa Durazzo Pallavicini is a large 19th-century romantic park on the hill of Pegli, in Genoa's western suburbs: almost nine hectares of paths, ponds, grottoes and fake ruins, laid out like a play in three acts. The entrance is next to Pegli station.
It was designed between 1840 and 1846 by Michele Canzio, set designer at the Teatro Carlo Felice, for the Marquis Ignazio Alessandro Pallavicini. You walk through it like a story: after a prologue and a Triumphal Arch, which invites you to leave your worries in the city, the woods begin.
The first act is devoted to Nature, with one of Italy's oldest camellia collections, planted between 1856 and 1877, which bloom in spring. The second, at the top of the pine wood, tells of History with a castle, a small Gothic chapel and a captain's mausoleum.
The third act is Purification: a dark, winding passage through a grotto that represents the underworld comes out onto the Great Lake, an image of Paradise. In the middle of the water stands the little temple of Diana, which has become the park's symbol.
Around the lake Canzio placed a small oriental-style iron bridge, a Chinese pagoda, an Egyptian obelisk and a Turkish temple. Further on is the octagonal Casino di Flora, with coloured glass and two facing mirrors that multiply whoever stands in the middle into infinity.
Some read the route as a path of Masonic initiation, inspired by the ideas of the marquis, who however never stated them openly: from leaving your worries behind to knowledge, and finally to truth after the ordeal of the grotto.
The park opened in 1846, on the occasion of the congress of Italian scientists, and unlike the private gardens of patrician villas it welcomed the paying public: it drew thousands of visitors every year and helped Pegli become a resort of European fame. In 2017 it was named the most beautiful park in Italy.
At the top of the hill, the neoclassical villa has housed the Museum of Ligurian Archaeology since 1936. Among its finds is the burial of the Prince, a boy of about fifteen who lived 24,000 years ago and was found with rich grave goods in the Arene Candide cave.
It was designed between 1840 and 1846 by Michele Canzio, set designer at the Teatro Carlo Felice, for the Marquis Ignazio Alessandro Pallavicini. You walk through it like a story: after a prologue and a Triumphal Arch, which invites you to leave your worries in the city, the woods begin.
The first act is devoted to Nature, with one of Italy's oldest camellia collections, planted between 1856 and 1877, which bloom in spring. The second, at the top of the pine wood, tells of History with a castle, a small Gothic chapel and a captain's mausoleum.
The third act is Purification: a dark, winding passage through a grotto that represents the underworld comes out onto the Great Lake, an image of Paradise. In the middle of the water stands the little temple of Diana, which has become the park's symbol.
Around the lake Canzio placed a small oriental-style iron bridge, a Chinese pagoda, an Egyptian obelisk and a Turkish temple. Further on is the octagonal Casino di Flora, with coloured glass and two facing mirrors that multiply whoever stands in the middle into infinity.
Some read the route as a path of Masonic initiation, inspired by the ideas of the marquis, who however never stated them openly: from leaving your worries behind to knowledge, and finally to truth after the ordeal of the grotto.
The park opened in 1846, on the occasion of the congress of Italian scientists, and unlike the private gardens of patrician villas it welcomed the paying public: it drew thousands of visitors every year and helped Pegli become a resort of European fame. In 2017 it was named the most beautiful park in Italy.
At the top of the hill, the neoclassical villa has housed the Museum of Ligurian Archaeology since 1936. Among its finds is the burial of the Prince, a boy of about fifteen who lived 24,000 years ago and was found with rich grave goods in the Arene Candide cave.