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Miradolo Castle is a historic building in San Secondo di Pinerolo – at the entrance of Val Chisone – and consists of a noble part and a rustic area. The complex was originally mentioned as a XVII century countryside “cassina”; at the end of 1700 it was transformed into a noble residence by Antonio Maurizio Massel di Caresana who also built the fishpond and the formal garden around the main building.

The castle and the park “golden age” began in the 1820s, when Maria Elisabetta Ferrero della Marmora married Marquis Maurizio Massel and had the “Citroniera” (“lemon grove”), the Round Tower and the surrounding wall built; the facade was also redone, applying neo-Gothic decorations, while the garden was expanded and remodelled.
In 1866, her niece Teresa Massel married Luigi dei Conti Cacherano di Bricherasio, who had the Miradolo Palace renovated with neo-Gothic style as a wedding gift.

Teresa and Luigi had two children: Sofia and Emanuele. The latter would become one of the founding partners and the largest shareholder of FIAT – the first major Italian car company – then, unfortunately, die prematurely in 1904.
With no family members left, in 2007 the complex was bought by a group of private investors and rented for free to the Cosso Foundation; the latter launched an impressive restoration project for the building and the park the following year – the complex was thus saved from oblivion and also enriched with a cultural centre and a research facility for arts and nature.

The park

The park surrounding Miradolo Castle covers about 15 acres and still retains its original XVIII century style and taste while, at the same time, showing all the further embellishments added in the following century.

The original project dates back to the last quarter of the XVIII century, when Miradolo Palace was adorned with a “garden of delights”, an orchard and a fishpond, as well as being surrounded by forage crops, vegetable gardens and vines.
In the first half of the XIX century, the park was given a landscape romantic look, thanks to a project by Xavier Kurten in 1823, and the further intervention of Maria Elisabetta Ferrero della Marmora in 1866.
Unequivocally inspired by the typical English informal gardens, the park has a vaguely oval shape, with a large grassy clearing in the centre, overlooked by shrubs, tree groves and isolated plants, including camellias, Taxodium distichum, Gingko biloba, and Sequoia sempervirens. It is crisscrossed by a network of irrigation canals, once fed by a small lake which later disappeared.

Photo source: from the web

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)