The Park of the Counts of Virgil and Leopardi inaugurated in Naples, a romantic garden between history and poetry – Naples

Napoli – Outside the swarming alleys of the historic center there is still a Naples, green, romantic, airy. We are in Piedigrotta, not far from Mergellina station, on the eastern slopes of the Posillipo pre -mountains. Here, according to tradition, from the first decades of the imperial era the remains of the Latin poet Publio Virgilio Marone -Rust. Petrarca and Boccaccio came to visit them in the fourteenth century and in many in previous centuries they had brought their tribute to the poet, honored as a kind of protector of the city. In 1939 a new, illustrious tenant joined Virgil in this special place, where the enchantment of the landscape meets the suggestions of archeology: it is Giacomo Leopardi, whose grave was transferred here from the church of San Vitale to Fuorigrotta, while the Park wanted amede -Archor.

Almost a century later, while I four 2500 years from the foundation of the old NapolisThe park of the graves of Virgil and Leopardi reopens the audience completely recovered with a double path to discover, thanks to a redevelopment project made with the PNRR funds. History and archeology are the red threads of the first travel schedule, which have significant monumental testimonies in the store, mainly the Grave of Virgil in work reticnlatum and the leopardi mausoleumNow enriches with epigraphics with the verses of the poets. In the first decades of the Roman Empire, a piece of the Augustan Aqueduct and the eastern entry of the Crypt NeapolitanaSpectacular gallery dug in the rock to connect Naples with the Flegrei fields. The latter is currently central to an important project for improvement and safety, which with a financing of 3 million euros from the cohesion and development fund of the MIC, one of the most fascinating paths of the old Naples will make usable.

Park of the graves of Virgil and Leopardi, Naples The Courtesy Management General Museums

In the second route Nature is the protagonist. In addition to restoring nail polish to graves and monuments such as the bust of Virgil and the seventeenth century Kiosk of Don Pedro d’Anagon, the restoration intervention has placed the foreground in the foreground Restoring historical green. Philological reconstruction and suggestive power are the animating principles of the project, which develops a reflection on the landscape as a poetic narrative tool. Fundamental objective, the improvement of the original characters of the park, inspired by the Nineteenth -century romantic gardens who brought together the indomitable beauty of nature in a picturesque whole into the charm of history and ruins. The essences that are present in the park – some already rooted, others who have been introduced for the occasion – have been selected for their connection with the Virgilian and Luipardian imagination: from the hair, called in the Song in Angelo Maito the Cipres of the RemnantUntil the Ginestra, celebrated in the homonymous composition.

Immersive 3D tours and digital content that can be used via a QR code are available for both routes, in an invitation to deepen history and curiosity and through virtual – even remotely – to explore areas of the park that, for structural reasons, are not feasible by everyone nowadays. Finally, the reception and guidance of visitors in relation to inclusion and accessibility will be carried out with the active participation of the local community, in which people with autistic spectrum disorders are involved in an experience of meeting and sharing.

Park of the graves of Virgil and Leopardi, Naples The Courtesy Management General Museums

The redevelopment project of the park was conceived by the General Manager Musei Massimo Osanna with Luana Toniolo, delegated director of the Regional Directorate National Museums, and coordinated by Carla Bagnulo, head of the park and the intervention on historic green. The design of the landscape was compiled by architect Silvia Lacatena in collaboration with the historian of the Gardens Maurizio Bartolini, while Mery Moz and Maria Teresa Girfoglio of the Restoration Office of the Regional Directorate National Museums Campania Campania edited.

“The inauguration of the Park of the Counts of Virgil and Leopardi returns to the city of Naples, one of the most suggestive and identity places – comments Osanna – via a project of improvement that combines conservation, accessibility, sustainability, sustainability and memory, in continuity of amedeo, that of the great vision of the vision of the vision of the vision of the vision of the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in the Vision in 19 in the Vision in the Vision in 1930 in the Vision in the Vision in 1930 in the Vision in the Vision in 1930 in the Vision in the Vision in 1930. Is, in 1930. Only a garden: it is a space in which archeology, poetry, myth and nature are dialogue and a lively cultural garrison, able to offer an authentic and inclusive experience.

Park of the graves of Virgil and Leopardi, Naples The Courtesy Management General Museums