LA SCARZUOLA - A BONKERS UMBRIAN GARDEN IN AN OUT OF THE WAY SPOT

Well - I've been to some extraordinary places in Italy but La Scarzuola is right up there for eccentricity, curiosity and charm.

Situated near Montegiove in Umbria and only 30 minutes drive from Citta della Pieve where we have our place, we've been meaning to visit this renowned but off the beaten track church and garden for ages, but its only available to visit by appointment. When there are only a couple of you wanting to visit its necessary to tag along with another booked group. Anyway - we managed to arrange to go on the morning of Thursday October 6th at 11am so we set off about 10am to get there in good time. A dull morning coupled with a twisty road to negotiate necessitated a careful drive, but I was not quite prepared for the off-road experience we were to encounter just south of Montegiove in the final approaches to the site.

APPROACHING LA SCARZUOLA ALONG THE UNMADE ROAD

An insignificant sign on a wooden post saying "La Scarzuola" marked a turning from the tarmac narrow lane on to an unmade track which led uphill and towards the forested hillside. It turned out to be a several kilometre drive over deep pot holes and mini ravines and about half way there we came upon a group of men out hunting. Some of their cars were almost blocking the track and we could hear the dogs barking and the guns going off at regular intervals. I pitied the wild boar fleeing for their lives in this remote area. Stories we'd heard of tourists being accidentally shot by over-enthusiastic alpha male hunters flashed momentarily through my mind - but soon we had passed the group of cars and we were onward bound again. Another couple of kilometres and we were finally there - pulling in to a gravelled yard where there were already several vehicles parked. We got out of the car and approached a gateway with large firmly closed wooden doors. There was no impression of anyone being about. Jon pulled an old fashioned ring pull at the side of the gate and we heard the bell tingle on the inside. The impression was like something from an old Italian film. Gradually one of the doors slowly creaked open and there stood a chap about the same age as us dressed in blue jumper and slacks.



BRIAN OUR LONG STANDING AUSTRALIAN GUIDE
AT LA SCARZUOLA

He didn't say anything but looked at us enquiringly as if saying "What are you doing here?" A brief mention of our telephone call the previous day brought s smile to his face and a welcome. Through the gate and we were inside a walled courtyard. On the lawn was a group of a dozen or so people - most of who seemed to come from Australia though there was a couple from Britain and a woman from Foligno nearby. One of the Australians asked if we'd had any trouble with the hunters coming up the lane. Tongue in cheek I said we hadn't. The man who met us, our guide for the tour, was called Brian and he also was Australian. He's evidently lived here at the house for the last 27 years so we were assured of some interesting tales and commentary. He was accompanied by Sebastian, a 15 year old hound who evidently goes on all the tours with Brian. I bet he could have told us a few stories as well.

AT 15 YEARS OLD & A TOUR  REGULAR
SEBASTIAN KNOWS A THING OR TWO ABOUT LA SCARZUOLA

We were stood in a grassed over courtyard walled on three sides with an arcaded building at the back of it. Enclosures on the two long sides contained 18th century bas reliefs of stations of the cross.

THE FRANCISCAN CONVENT CHAPEL FROM THE
COURTYARD AT LA SCARZUOLA

 I hadn't known it but this was the site of a Franciscan convent founded by St Francis in 1218. He evidently had travelled here from Assisi, only 30 miles or so to the west, and planted a bay and some roses bushes causing a spring to gush forth from the hillside. The spring still runs today and  we would later in the tour see a stone cistern catching the cool, fresh water from the hillside. The name La Scarzuola comes from the fact St Francis used the stems of a marsh plant - the Scarza- to construct a shelter for himself near the spring. Inside the church building, parts of which date back to the 13th century, in the apse there survives one of the earliest known images of the saint in fresco.

ONE OF THE EARLIEST KNOWN FRESCO IMAGES OF ST FRANCIS
IN LEVITATION
CHAPEL APSE - LA SCARZUOLA

 It depicts the saint in levitation. On another wall there's a later image of him picking the Scarza plant to make his shelter. Much restoration using private funding has taken place inside the church since the second world war and today there's alot to see in this wonderfully atmospheric sacred interior.

ST FRANCIS PICKING THE SCARZA MARSH PLANT TO
THATCH HIS WOODEN DWELLING
LA SCARZUOLA

RESTORED DOMED CEILING FRESCOS OF
FRANCISCAN MARTYRS
CHAPEL - LA SCARZUOLA

By the early 1950's the old convent was in a mess and down to only a couple of friars. The church was delapidated and being used as a store and the site was run down. The convent was finally bought in 1956 by the renowned Italian architect, Tomaso Buzzi from Milan and he would, over many years, transform it in to what it s today.

TOMASO BRUZZI (1900-1981)

Tomaso Bruzzi (1900-1981) was an architect and designer of distinction from Milan and all his clients were either very rich or from the nobility according to Brian. Buildings he worked on include the Villa Nechi Campiglio in Milan, Palladio's villa Maser and Palazzo Papadopoli Treviso in Venice. Gio Ponti was his friend and collaborator and with him he was a leading exponent of the Novocento Milanese design movement of the 1930's. He also worked extensively with Murano's Paolo Venini of the famous Venetian Venini glassworks in 1932-33 producing modern designs exploiting the form and materials of glass. With apartments in Venice and Rome La Scarzuoloa was an opportunity for an experiment and he never actually lived there, but between 1958 and 1978 he created this most extraordinary garden folly next to the remote convent chapel in the middle of the Umbrian countryside.

Inspiration for his work came from a Renaissance illustrated story book by Franceso Colonna - the HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLYPHILI (The Strife of Love in a Dream) published in Venice in 1499.
Famous during the Renaissance as an allegorical celebation of the powers of love and beauty and where architectural ideas were also discussed - it fired Buzzo's vivid imagination and although the garden was unfinished at the time of his death - it was later completed by his nephew and heir.
I couldn't wait to get our first sight of it.

FIRST VIEW OF THE EXTRAORDINARY BRUZZI COMPLEX
FROM ONE OF THE PERFORMANCE PLATFORMS
AT LA SCARZUOLA

Essentially we left the chapel by the front door and walked round the side of it, through an arbour where the hillisde spring cistern was situated and then took a path round to what Brian described as a good vantage point. I vaguely knew what we were in for, but the reality took my breath away to say the least. The chosen spot provided us with a view of an amazing complex of buildings and spaces  which almost defy description. The complex, designed to be a complex intellectual puzzle as well as a feast for the eyes, was in essence an integration of seven theatres of different sizes, levels and accommodation - the smallest for only 10 people, the largest on the lower hillside accommodating 500. In Tomaso's mind, Brian told us, he was creating a city of the profane to complement the sacred city of the chapel next door. There are staircases going to nowhere, lots of conceits and visual puns and buildings which challenge ones perceptions in every respect. The whole, constructed without architectural drawings and made of a tufa material from Viterbo, was always problematic from the start and its an expensive nightmare to conserve and repair today evidently.



THE HILLSIDE AMALGAM OF VAGUELY CLASSICAL BUILDINGS

Up on the hillside above one of the theatrical arenas stands a pile of miniature edifices, what have been described as a pastiche of famous buildings including the Parthenon of Athens to name but one. Elsewhere there's a masonic temple and even a building inspired by the famous La Scala opera house in Milan. Some of the oddities include a musical staircase, a transparent pyramid and an organ where the pipes are represented as cypress trees. I was particularly drawn to the inside of a building constructed as the hull of a boat, the whole surrounded by water, and from where the were unuusal garden vistas to be had. This was evidently inspired by the stage in the story concerned with the "beginning of a voyage".

GETTING READY TO LEAVE LA SCARZUOLA

My art historical knowledge was trying to apply labels to what I was seeing as we went round - a massive folly? - a modern day piece of installation art designed to challenge? a Surrealist dream perhaps?  The possibilities are endless. A mannerist Pontormo painting in the National Gallery in London with a staircase going to nowhere came to mind - as did visions of Roman grotesques and Bernini's dramatic baroque sculptures. All in all I think its something of a masterpiece. I've always loved wild eclecticism and this garden had it in shovels full.

NAKED FEMALE TORSO - LA SCARZUOLA

Many concert performances have been held here over the years but they are less frequent today. I can imagine European Community health and safety legislation is enough to put off any would be entrepreneur from holding a concert here. Brian told us the Pittsburgh Philharmonic Orchestra had once performed here to great acclaim.

STRANGE STAIRCASE AND GATEWAY

This is an off the beaten track experience undertaken only by the few - if you can go and be one of them and be amazed!!

ADMISSION TO LA SCARZUOLA IS ONLY BY APPOINTMENT
Tel 0763 837 463
10 euros per person
Tour time about 2 hours.

Ciao & KBO
Ian x