Sacred Wood of Bomarzo

The Sacred Wood is commonly called Monster Park because of the presence of fantastic and grotesque sculptures scattered in a wooded area. The complex was conceived by Prince Pier Francesco (called Vicino) Orsini in 1552.

The surreal landscape, almost a natural amphitheater, presents a threatening population of boulders, generated by a telluric upheaval; the rocks, carved on the spot have come alive taking the form of terrible creatures, scattered along steep paths among trees and wild vegetation.
The forest, while fully integrated in the composite and erudite architectural-naturalistic culture of the second half of the 16th century, is unique in that it differs from the refined Italian Renaissance gardens.
It presents itself as an adventurous sequence of apparitions, frightening and pleasant that the visitor discovers one after the other in the green of the forest, with amazement without a logical order and without a predetermined path. The forest, an authentic labyrinth of symbols, envelops anyone who enters it physically and intellectually, offering completely irregular solutions. The different elements are free from any perspective relationship and do not share any coherence of proportions.
The creator of the singular garden has succeeded in breaking every classical composure to build with its gigantic elements a disconcerting relationship with nature.