A Japanese Doll in the Park of Monsters

Dear Reader,

Once upon a time, a noble condottiero and patron of the arts, Sir Pier Francesco Orsini, decided to create the Park of Monsters in Bomarzo, a set of gardens filled with monsters and mythological creatures. Sir Pier Francesco made it very clear and remarked that the creatures were not meant to be pretty, but to astonish. It all happened one rainy night, in the 1550’s… Sir Pier Francesco had just been back from a brutal war, the French-Spanish war fought in Italy, he had been held for random reasons, his friend was killed, and came home to find his beloved wife dead. Wrecked with grief, Sir Pier Francesco decided he wanted to create a park of wonders, filled with fascinating creatures and sculptures for which he would have an explanatory inscription for each. And so he hired the architect Pirro Logorio to help him with this creation. He was a very respected architect, he completed the Cathedral of Saint Peter after Michelangelo passed away. Sir Pier Francesco believed it took an unusual architect to build an unusual park of wonders. And this park, dear Reader, is truly astounding… The park is filled with bizarre and fascinating sculptures and creatures from mythology and other monsters for which only the accompanying inscriptions (and some imagination 🙂 ) provide any explanation.

Among the pieces are a war elephant

a dragon fighting a lion

the Greek battle between two giants

Poseidon sitting in what looks like to be his temple at the bottom of the ocean

a house built on a tilt to disorient the viewer

a mythological big finger nail

The best part o the park is the enormous head, mouth opened wide in a scream. The accompanying inscription reads “all thought departs” (ogni pensiero vola).

The echo is incredible, so please try go inside like my brother Stefano did when he screamed from the inside and scared a bunch children outside with the loud echo that came out. It works. Inside the mouth you will see that the on the tongue stands a picnic table and enough seating for a few people.

As the park was not magical enough, Stanito found the most unlikely creature that could ever be found in such place. A true Japanese cosplay girl dressed in a what I imagined to be an impala or wild sheep. She was accompanied by her own photographer and the environment actually suited her well 🙂