Gardens Near and Far episode 23 – Ninfa : By the twelfth century, the ancient settlement of Ninfa had become a sizeable town with a castle. The noble Caetani family were granted the fiefdom. But the town’s population was decimated by civil wars in the fourteenth century, then driven out by malaria.
Ninfa lay abandoned until the twentieth century, when three generations of Caetani women – Ada, Marguerite and Lelia – became fascinated with it and made a garden in the ruins of the old town. Wild and cultivated plants twine through the ruins in a riot of colour that somehow achieves a consummate elegance.
Gardens Near and Far episode 23 – Ninfa
The Garden of Ninfa is a landscape garden in the territory of Cisterna di Latina, in the province of Latina, central Italy. The park has an area of 105 hectares (260 acres), and is an Italian natural monument. The landscape garden within the park comprises 8 hectares (20 acres) and contains medieval ruins, several oaks, cypresses and poplars, grassy meadows, a wide range of exotic plants from various parts of the world, numerous watercourses and a large variety of rambling roses growing over the stone walls of the ruins.
The site is run by the Italian foundation Fondazione Roffredo Caetani. It is open to the public at set times from April to November. Nearby towns include Norma and Sermoneta. Ninfa has been described as “the most romantic garden in the world”.
The garden includes the ruins of the ancient settlement of Ninfa, whose name seems to derive from a classical era nymphaeum, a temple dedicated to nymphs, located on an island in the small lake; nymphs were believed to dwell in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, and also in trees and in valleys and cool grottoes. According to Charles Quest-Ritson’s book Ninfa: The Most Romantic Garden in the World, the Gardens of Ninfa’s first documented evidence is from Pliny the Younger, who described a temple on the premises dedicated to water nymphs.
