th
# 63 • June 28 , 2015
The actual name is that of the last lords of Laconi, the Aymerich, who lived here from the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century; but the building was built in the Middle Ages to
defend the frontier of the Kingdom of Arborea from that of Cagliari. The main tower, rectangular
in plan, dates back to the XI-XII century and in the eighteenth was transformed into a prison.
Next to the tower there is the real castle, built on
two levels: the lower one is contemporary to the
tower, while the upper one came after, and has elegant moldings on the windows in Catalan-Aragonese style. Ignazio Aymerich, a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy in 1830 and a passionate collector of
plants, was the one who wanted either the creation
of a garden of exotic plants that extends over a large area, and the wood which surrounds the castle,
where we can find a also unusual habitat of non
native plants, such as a cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus
libani) with special dimensions, the Corsican pine
(Pinus nigra), the Pendulo beech (Fagus sylvatica),
the Collectia cruciata (very rare plant), and even
the Magnolia grandiflora, the Thuia orientalis, and
Taxus baccata.
WE THE ITALIANS | 39
www.wetheitalians.com