The Ottolenghi-Wedekind estate in Monterosso, is one of the most refined works by landscape architect Pietro Porcinai. This property dominates the wine-growing landscape of the Acqui hills and is an emblem of the commitment of the two enlightened patrons who during the 20th century made it “an acropolis of the arts” .
In 1923, on the hill of Monterosso in Acqui, Count Arturo Ottolenghi and German sculptress Herta Wedekind zu Horst initiated the creation of a unique artistic context, a crossroads open to architects, sculptors, painters, interior designers, landscape architects and gardeners of excellence. The project of the two patrons, that was abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of the War and their death in the early 1950s, has been continued by their son Astolfo, who commissioned Giuseppe Vaccaro and Pietro Porcinai to complete the work his parents had started. Between 1955 and 1962, the Florentine landscape architect designed and executed a project for the garden and the entire estate connecting the fragmented architectural components on the property. Porcinai designed an ascending pathway unravelling from the provincial road below, near the ancient cemetery of Acqui Terme, and connecting the property’s various outbuildings introduced by a large fountain and Arturo Martini’s sculptural group depicting Adam and Eve, an evocation of the original Garden of Eden. Among the vineyards is the Mausoleum, a work begun in 1929 designed by Marcello Piacentini. At the top of the estate is the villa with the rationalist architecture of the artists’ ateliers, providing a scenographic backdrop to ponds from which Tobiolo’s statue emerges. On the southern side is the formal garden, in continuity with the patio designed by Giuseppe Vaccaro, whose chessboard of black and white pebbles is translated into a reticular design of stone and lawn, alternating with beds of roses and boxwood. Maritime pines and a row of citrus vases guides the perspective towards the vast hilly landscape.