A garden teeming with water and plant life along the banks of the Tagliamento River, offering contemplative times to an illustrious guest of the Kechlers: writer Ernest Hemingway.
This centuries-old agricultural estate dedicated to rice cultivation – once very popular in this lowland area – was acquired by the Gaspari family in the 19th century. The family commissioned Udine-based architect Andrea Scala, who had studied under Venetian designer Giuseppe Jappelli (repsonsible for the park at Villa Hierschel, in nearby Precenicco), to redesign and enhance the manor house. Of limited extension, the park stretches out along the bank of the Tagliamento River, arranged in a picturesque, ring-shaped route on which the lush vegetation is to a large extent autochthonous, with some additions of exotic origin. The edges of small ponds – connected by bridges and interspersed with islets – are marked by specimens of bald cypress (Taxodiumdistichum). The villa, which became the property of the De Asarta family at the end of the 19th century, passed on to the Kechler family in the 20th century. In recent decades, owner Ciccinella Kechler has restored the park to its original beauty, taking care of it with great dedication and opening up views that had long been lost to exuberant vegetation growth.
Highlights
Wisteria
On the facade of the manor house, imposing wisteria adorns the entrance to the courtyard of honor. At its most stunning in spring when it flowers, it makes for a magnificent introduction to the wonders of this park.
Botanical rarities
A few specimens from the original arrangement, for example the very old magnolias, have survived to this day. Apart from the monumental white poplar next to the villa, the garden’s most precious trees are varieties of poplars, farnias, horse chestnuts, cephalotaxis, thuias, ginkgo, libocedrus, plane trees, sugar maples, Lawson’s cypresses, beeches, and spruces.
The Winding Path and Grotto-Icehouse
A path marked out by convallaria grass runs around the entire green area, continuing under an arcade to the interesting grotto-icehouse, before climbing the hill to the outlook and then continuing along the banks of the ponds, where typical wetland marshy cypress trees thrive.
Ernest Hemingway
The great writer was friends with brothers Federico, Carlo and Alberto Kechler from the late 1940s. A regular guest at the villa, he truly loved the Friulian countryside, and was known to have enjoyed pheasant hunting. Hemingway describes a place like this in his novel about Colonel Cantwell and Countess Renata, Across the River and Into the Trees.