The Durazzo Pallavicini Park, created at the request of the Marquis Ignazio Pallavicini, was designed and realised between 1840 and 1846 by Michele Canzio, who at the time was working as a stage designer at the Carlo Felice Theatre.
His genius led not only to a park fashioned in the Romantic style, but also to a highly original theatrical itinerary made up of a number of set designs, linked to one another by a narrative thread spread over three acts. The route, which is highlighted with refined vistas combining nature and architecture, curls along the Viale Classico (Classical Avenue), the Coffee House, the Arc de Triomphe, the Hermit’s House, and finally the Big Lake with Chinese Pagoda and Temple of Diana, the Flora Garden and the Rose Gazebo, all of which forms part of a landscape that is meticulously composed within its various elements.
Highly prestigious plant forms are not lacking, either: the monumental camphor tree (cinnamonum camphora) next to the Lebanese Cedar, the palm trees, monkey puzzle tree (araucaria) and cork tree - although the collection of ancient camellias, which rewards us with its spectacular blossoming every spring, particularly stands out.
The Park includes the “Clelia Durazzo Grimaldi” botanical garden. Created in 1794, the garden was extremely famous from the outset in several parts of €pe, thanks to the skill and entrepreneurial flair of Clelia Durazzo, a woman from a noble family. It underwent a dramatic transformation in 1840, at the wish of her nephew Ignazio Pallavicini, and was later renovated again by his daughter, Teresa.
Since 1928, it has been the property of Genoa Council, which over the last few years has restored it to its old splendour.
The two nineteenth-century glasshouses represent Genoa’s most refined affirmation of the botanical culture that marked scientific environments at the start of the nineteenth century.
Despite its modest size, the new botanical garden offers an extensive panorama, highlighting the wonderful biodiversity of the plant world, thanks to the numerous theme-based “rooms” through which nature can be tangibly approached, thus giving visitors the opportunity to understand the various biological mechanisms, ecological systems, intriguing morphologies and hidden secrets of plants.
Text: Grandi Giardini Italiani
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