Villa Barbarigo and the Gardens of Valsanzibio – Galzignano Terme (Padua)

In 1539 was a host of the Family of Contarini the Sienese ecclesiastich philosopher Alessandro Piccolomini, who stayed in Valsanzibio for a period to conclude his treaty Della Sfera del Mondo (The Sphere of the World) (work of astronomy written in 1540). In the dedication to his work he sang the beauties of the pleasant place, The Garden of Valsanzibio. On the oriental side of the Euganei Hills, to Valsanzibio locality of the city of Galzignano, there is the Garden Barbarigio Pizzoni Ardemani, one of the gardens of 1600s better kept of Europe. Characterised by a rich view of founrains and of bains, it comes in a sequence of architectural vision and striking and wonderful landscapes. The Garden rises in the ancient valley of fishing of Saint Eusebio of whose there is the Church. In 1400 Valsanzibio passed from the Scrovegni to the Contarini and then to the Barbarigo, who at the end of 1500s built the firts nucleus of the master Villa. In 1631 the Proxy of Saint Mark the noble Zuane Francesco Barbarigo to escape the plague took refuge in the villa then lived in mess of hunt, carrying out then his vow not to have fallen ill, helped the children Gregorio and Antonio, to the amplification of the existing garden. The project was assigned to Papal Luigi Bernini, prestigious architect in the epoch.

There was exactly the eldest Gregorio, Cardinal and Bishop of Padua and future Saint, to inspire the high symbology of thye project. In consequence of the solemn vow done by the father, he wanted that the Garden of Valsanzibio was a monumental emblem of the “Road of Perfection that leads the man with the Error to the Truth, from the Ignorance to the Revelation”. The allegoric Garden that was created, so as he presents himself to our days, consists of 70 statues sculptured in the stone of Istria, largely mark of the Merengo , and as many smaller sculptures, which integrate to architectures, brooks, falls, fountains, lakes, water jokes and fish punds immersed between numerous models of trees and shrubs, set on further 10 hectares of surface. Besides, inside the complex and very important stop in the run, there is the “Labyrinth” in box hedge, the symbolic Cave of the Hermit, the Island of the Rabbits and the Monument to the Time.

The beginning of the run starts from “Diana’s Pavilion”, the monumental entry road waters to the Estate of the Barbarigo used like principal entry in XVII and XVIII century. Here it was the landing of the boats arruved trough the Valley to Fishing of Saint Eusebio (whose name “Val San Zibio”) once extended to the whole plain, but today limited to the little lake (the Paludo) protected to make reflecting in the water the elegant construction. Then one proceeds for the Great Avenue towards the Villa flanking the Island of the Rabbits and the Monument to the Time. The Island of the Rabbits, only existing surviving enclosure in the epoch gardens is a symbol of the “Immanence”, or of the condition common to the alive beings forced between the limits of the space of the time. Proceeding between statues and fountains, it is arrived to the Fountain of the Snares or of the Jokes, followed by the Flight of steps of the Loins of pork of Dantesque memory, also been called a Flight of steps of the Sonnet why characterised by a sonnet in which the meanings of the Garden are explained to different levels. The square is reached front Villa where eight allegories of the prerogatives of the Garden itself and of his Gentleman, do crown to the Fountain of the Ecstasy, of the Mushroom or of the Revelation, final goal of the symbolic run.

The integral aspect of the architecture, of the sculptures, of the landscapes, of the vegetation and of all that today our eyes can be admire, they have been made possible by quite three generations of Noble Pizzoni Ardemani.

The noble Family has brought back to the brilliance the disasters caused by the military occupation and by the forced abandonment of the World War II. There have been restored and restored all the 33 points of water of the Garden, compromises of eighty years of progressive spring impoverishment.

Thanks to the immense and constant maintenance work, Valsanzibio today is an extraordinary example of Symbolic Garden entirely preserved and of an absolutely integrally Seicentesco Giardino to the Italian and unchanged in the centuries.