WTI Magazine #80    2016 June 17
Author : Italian Botanical Heritage      Translation by:

Villa Buonaccorsi, in the Marche region, the country residence of a noble family, was built in the sixteenth century and is equipped with the main house, the gardens, the stables, a few terraced houses and the small Baroque church of San Filippo.

On the south slope of the hill there are five terraces. 

The first includes the "Secret Garden" surrounded by pebbles from which once sorted out symmetric jets of water that formed a gallery where visitors could pass without getting wet, and the "friars cave". The second has formal gardens enlivened by statues depicting Harlequin and Pulcinella. The third is characterized by the "Avenue of the Emperors", and in a niche we can see the statue of the Flora goddess. The fourth terrace is home to other formal flower beds. The fifth terrace is of more recent vintage.

In the garden there are also various water games; hundreds of citrus inside large XIXth century clay pots, in an enclosed and sheltered terraces and exposed to the sun; a small theater; a church and a large wood, English-style, with an artificial lake and a hill which offers a beautiful view to the sea, separated from the garden by another wall.

Visitors can also discover the greenhouses with trees; statues of musicians that move rhythmically with their instruments to the water flow; the subterraneans where large barrels of wine produced from the vineyards of the hill were kept, together with still intact stone vats for oil decantation.

The building has an irregular plan: it is composed of different buildings that enclose a courtyard with a porch graced by four elegant statues by Giovanni Bonazza (from early XVIIIth century).