Famous for its highly colourful tulip display, the garden of the Castello di Pralormo is interesting all through the year due to its well-designed structure: views through the trees, sunny patches, landscaped greenery blending into the surrounding countryside are all features testifying Kurten’s artistry.
Located on a dominating position at the margins of the Langhe-Roero area, the castle originally dates back to the 13th century. In the 1830s Count Carlo Beraudo di Pralormo, a Minister of the Kingdom of Savoy, initiated the works that radically transformed what was a Medieval fortalice, into the current residence designed by court architect Ernesto Melano. Xavier Kurten, who at the time was working in Racconigi and several other royal and aristocratic residencies across Piedmont, can be credited for the castle’s landscape garden. For the new layout of the park there exists a list compiled by the German architect of nearly 4,000 specimens of exotic and native tree and shrub species that were planted in the winter between 1828 and 1829. Today, centuries-old cedars, oaks, maples, cherry trees, yews, lime trees, lilacs, viburnums, roses, calicanthemums, forsythia, spireas and peonies still give rise to vibrant colour palettes throughout the seasons. Thanks to its limited size and to the fact that it remained property of the same family through the centuries, Castello di Pralormo has preserved its original structure. Minor additions were introduced in the last quarter of the 19th century: the construction of an outbuilding destined to become an orangeryand a stable, the “Castellana” farmstead, and a glass and iron greenhouse designed by the Parisian Lefebvre brothers.
Highlights
“Messer Tulipano”
Since 2000, the park has celebrated the arrival of spring every year with the "Messer Tulipano" exhibition, which features the spectacular flowering of thousands of tulips, narcissus, hyacinths, muscari and crocus, with rare varieties of great historical and botanical significance.
The greenhouse
An important feature of a secluded area of the garden on the southern side of the castle is the late 19th-century iron and glass greenhouse by the Lefebvre Brothers from Paris. Its ideal exposure allows the cultivation of plants such as citrus trees, orchids and other exotic specimen keeping them protected from the rigid Piedmont winters.
The pond
Since the area is rather arid Kurten designed the pond as a rainwater basin for the irrigation of the park. In winter, when the trees are bare, the castle reflects in the crystal-clear water.