Situated 20 km from Ragusa, this park is one of the most beautiful historical gardens in Sicily. Created between the 19th and 20th centuries, it is conceived as a collection of references of different past garden styles in keeping with the taste for revival typical of that period.
The final layout of the park of Castello di Donnafugata was commissioned by Baron Corrado Arezzo de Spuches at the beginning of the 20th century. Restored in 2005 it has now regained its original splendour. Surrounded by walls, it is crossed by straight paths that connect the various monumental features and by a network of secondary irregular paths. The decors include a remarkable Neoclassic kaffeehaus, a small circular temple with a sky-painted dome and artificial grottos with cork stalactites, a chapel, an artificial lake with a cistern, a magnificent stone maze,and two cypress-tree exedras with cenotaphs that recall Rousseau’s 18th-century tomb on the Isle of Poplar Trees in Ermenonville. The park comprises three areas: the horticultural area with citrus and fruit trees, greenhouses and a small botanical garden with exotic species; the “formal” garden adjacent to the Castello di Donnafugata building, landscaped by Gaetan Combes de Lestrade, with lavender and rosemary flowerbeds; and lastly the “informal” garden. The tree layout is extremely refined and originally included more than 1500 plant species. Today only about a hundred remain among which there are four examples of over one-century-old Ficus macrophylla, two Pinus roxburghii, and one orange wood Sideroxylon foetidissimum; also part of the park are a Ficus magnolioides and bengalensis, Casuarina verticillata, Rhus tripartite and viminalis, maritime pines and palm trees.
Highlights
The Castello
The Castello di Donnafugata is a 19th-century building erected where once stood a 3rd century tower. It is in fact a fascinating Gothic Revival aristocratic residence, with about 122 rooms, some of which can be visited. During the reign of King Umberto (1878-1900) it became one of the most fashionable and renowned salons of the province of Ragusa.
An “English” maze in Sicily
One of the most significant features of the Park is the “Pirdituri”, a dry-stone-wall maze built in white Ragusa stone, once covered with thick rose bushes to stop people from climbing over the walls. The trapezoidal plan is a copy of Hampton Court’s 18th-century hedge maze designed by George London and Henry Wise.
The Baron’s jeux d'eau
In the park there are various fountains connected to large rainwater cisterns called “ghiebbie”. Playful water features to surprise the guests with were hidden in the backs of the semicircle row of seats in the park, while the grotto was home to an automaton figure that amongst jets of water swallowed and expelled little balls.
The shadow of Freemasonry
Even if the Baron’s name has never been found in the lists of Freemasons, there are some elements of his garden that can be attributed to the typical Freemason symbolism: the purifying presence of water, the labyrinth as means of initiation, the sky-painted dome of the small temple, and the paths laid out so to match the four cardinal points.