The Grand Gardens of Lazio were designed without restraints of budget, modesty or topography.
These estates, called tenute, were not aspirational real estate improvements: each reflects the personal and institutional success of one of the rich and powerful leaders of the Italian Renaissance. They are carefully planned shows of privilege, unfettered with committee decision-making or standards of conventional beauty. Most are green year round, demonstrating the perpetual, rather than seasonal, stature of the owner.
Archival records were carefully kept by estate managers and still exist. They show the crucial role of personal alliances: tenute were exchanged with wedding vows, delivery of private militias or bishoprics. Designers were hired from the artistic stable working on St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, with which these installations were contemporary. Michelangelo, as well as Raphael, Vignola, and Ligorio crafted these corners.
Influential guests were themselves inspired by what they saw. They took the concepts of the Renaissance, and the importance of the Grand Garden, far and wide with them.
These conquests of Nature—using secular themes, humanistic technology, and idiosyncratic taste—are present today in the best micro-climates in the Roman vicinity. The hydraulic fountains and irrigation water systems still function after hundreds of years, and specimen trees are among the oldest known on earth.
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GARDENS OF UMBRIA AND LAZIO
