Old homes with long drain pipes, replaced windows and patched rubble walls beside staircase tower of Palazzo Orsini at Bomarzo, Lazio, Italy, converted into grand Renaissance palace by 1500s retired military leader Duke Vicino Orsini. Below it, he created the Villa of the Wonders, with terraces bearing bizarre Mannerist artworks and now known as Parco del Mostri (Park of the Monsters).
Bomarzo, Lazio, Italy: traditional dwellings with long drain pipes, replaced windows and stone rubble walls scarred by countless patches and repairs adjoin a staircase tower projecting from the restored facade of a Renaissance palace once owned by the powerful Orsini family. The Palazzo Orsini di Bomarzo was created over several 1500s decades from a medieval castle on the hill above this small town north-west of Rome and north-east of the provincial capital, Viterbo. Its first wing was designed by Sienese architect and painter Baldassare Peruzzi (1481-1536) with later work carried out for the condottiere (mercenary captain), intellectual and humanist arts patron, Pier Francesco Orsini (1523-1583), Duke of Bomarzo, known in his lifetime as Vicino Orsini. Other architects and artists who worked on the palace included sculptor and architect Francesco Moschino and also followers of the Baroque painter, Pietro da Cortona. Vicino expressed his love for his wife, Giulia Farnese, by creating a terraced garden, The Villa of the Wonders, below the palace and then dedicating it to her memory after her death in the 1560s. The terraces host enigmatic larger-than-life statues and grotesque Mannerist artworks by architect and painter Pirro Ligorio (c. 1512-1583). They include a face with a walk-in open mouth, wrestling giants, war elephants and the Casa Storta or Twisted House, built to lean backwards and with sloping floors. The so-called Park of the Monsters or Parco del Mostri is also known as Bosco dei Mostri (Grove of the Monsters) and Sacro Bosco (Sacred Wood). The Orsini family sold the palace in 1645 and in 1836, it passed to the Borghese family. It now belongs to the Bomarzo municipality, which uses Vicino Orsini’s Gallery apartment as its offices.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Bomarzo, Lazio, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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