The Renaissance Garden.
The Giusti Garden is considered to be one of the symbols in the Region Veneto among the gardens in Italian Style of the late Renaissance. In this historical period the arts took inspiration from the classical Roman and Greek culture. The reason, order and symmetry were the dominant principles. We actually find all these elements in the structure of the garden. The green of the plants, particularly, evergreen plants, dominate the garden, because this kind of plants do not lose their foliage to be reborn in spring, it didn’t give the idea of death and rebirth, but something that does not change in time. Plants like cypress trees convey structure and decoration to a garden because of their pyramidal shape. The topiary art, inherited by the roman culture also reappears here, the boxes’ hedges which give shape to geometrical designs around the statues and fountains.
The creation of the Giusti Garden and its development throughout the centuries.
The Giusti Garden was created by the count Agostino Giusti around 1585, and from then on belongs to the same family, who arrived in Verona in exile from Tuscany at the time of the fights between Guelfs and Ghibellins. The family settled in Verona, a ghibellin town, and will become well known in the textile industry, but at the same time will have a relevant influence in the cultural environment.In the Renaissance the family will be active members of the Philharmonic Accademy in Verona and its seat will even be in the houses of the Giusti family. In the garden of the residence took place theatre plays and concerts. Little by little the houses will become a unique structure giving birth to the present palace.
The garden became throughout the centuries the destination of important personalities such as Goethe, Mozart and Charles De Brosses. Still nowadays many tourists visit the garden, where they find not just a masterpiece of Renaissance art, but also an oasis of peace and tranquility in town.
The storm of 2020.
Unfortunately the climatic changes in the las years become remarkable in Verona too; especially during the summer season, when improvised storms arrive.
The year 2020 was a very hard year for Italy, and for the whole world. We will allways remember it as the year of the “Covid” pandemic, this unknown virus, which caused so much suffering and death, that compelled us to the isolation, to the lockdowns. But it was not enough everything that was going on, and on the 23rd August 2020 Verona was hit by a downpour with strong gusts of wind and a hailstorm. The Giusti Garden was one of the victims of the sudden storm, that left behind a bleak scene in the garden.
A garden destroyed.
Several trees, among them Celtis Australis and many cypress trees fell, damaging parts of the walls surrounding the garden, but the most important damages were on the cypress alley and the maze. Many of the existing cypress trees had been replanted after the Second World War because bombs destined to the Railway Station fell, by mistake in the garden. The trees had, though, reached an important dimension, but positioned along an alley , they fell ones on top of the others, and a few of them on the maze, that had been restored in the ninetees.
The Goethe’s cypress tree.
Anyway, the most important symbol was a historical cypress tree, called “ the Goethe cypress”, due to the fact that the German playwright had mentioned it in the diary of his journey in Italy in 1786. Goethe would have taken a couple of twigs of the tree and he kept him with himself as long as he strolled in Verona. People came from all over Europe and elsewhere to see it. Even if it was already in precarious conditions, the garden owners, the Giiusti Family, had tried to do their best to save it.Unfortunately the devastating strength of the wind was able to uproot it completely. All the efforts to try to save it were useless, and in this way the garden lost one of its most important symbols.
After the storm the sun shines again.
Notwithstanding, little by little the order has been restored; just a few days after the storm, the garden was reopened to the public and in the last years the cypress trees along the alley have been replanted, the maze has been restored and also the hedges that had been damaged by the storm. The cypresses today are much smaller than they used to be before, but they will grow again and they will give us the opportunity to go back to the time of Agostino Giusti to be able to admire his most precious jewell, the most important masterpiece born out of his creativity.
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