Lake Bolsena - Jewel in the Heart of Italy


Go to content

Villa Lante

Great Renaissance Gardens


Villa Lante is by no means the biggest or the most spectacular of all the great gardens of Italy, but for many including, it is said, Prince Charles it is the quintessential Renaissance formal garden; one that has set the pattern for many imitations, replicated in fine houses and estates across the world ever since.

Dating from the mid 1500s, its hillside position enabled an elaborate water garden to be created, not without some trouble, by the well known water engineer Ghinucci. Its original creator was Cardinal Gambara, but it took nearly 30 years to complete the buildings and gardens as you see them today, when the estate came into the ownership of a young nobleman, Alessandro Peretti di Montalto, nephew of Pope Sixtus V.

Villa Lante is in the town of Bagnaia, a small town a few miles due east of Viterbo on the slopes of the old Volcano.


BackPlayNext

Back to content | Back to main menu