TH
# 57 • APRIL 5 , 2015
# 57 •APRIL 5
TH
2015
ne; and then 20 exedras and
terraces, 9,000 square meters
of roads, walkways and ramps.
But besides feeding fountains
and waterfalls, water even produces music: Villa d’Este has
the one and only functioning
water organ in the world. An
extraordinary mechanism in
which in certain moments during the day the flowing water
moves the air blowing through the reeds of a large organ,
producing delicious melodies.
ginal secret garden of flowers,
unfortunately lost during the
centuries. Roses wonderfully
decorate the garden, but their
growing is complicated by the
high humidity of the place,
due to the many fountains, and
by the shading created by the
ancient trees.
The massive construction of
the garden and the terraces
The “vialone” (big avenue) is
the first terrace we meet once
echo the context of the Han- we get off the monumental
ging Gardens of Babylon, stair, and is bordered by the
while the presence of various Grand Lodge where the court
sources of water, with an aque- gathered for the shows. Oppoduct and a tunnel under the site to the Lodge there is the
city, recall the engineering ca- fountain of Europe that in the
pacity of the Romans.
past use to collect water in a
marble basin.
There are in fact 250 gushes, 60
pools of water, 255 waterfalls, The “Fontana dell’Ovato” is
100 tanks, 50 fountains, all fed semicircular, takes water from
by the waters of the river Anie- above and has mythological
statues; it is placed at the end
of the “Viale delle Cento Fontane“ (hundred fountains avenue) which also include the
“Fontana della Rometta” (little
Rome fountain) and the “Fontana di Tivoli”.
The “Fontana della Civetta”
(owl fountain) is a hydraulic
device sound, consists of two
mosaic columns. The “Fontana del Drago” (dragon fountain) shows a statue of Hercules slaying the dragon with a
hundred heads. The “Fontana
di Nettuno” (Neptune foun-
tain) is the most impressive nature and the uninterrupted
and spectacular and is also the flow of life.
most recent.
The “Fontana del Bicchierone”
The “Fontana di Proserpina” (big glass fountain) depicts a
consists of a central basin, notched chalice superimpotwo side niches between four sed on another similar, both
columns wrapped in vines in supported by a large ͡