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Opened in 2010 in Paratico, on the Brescia side of Lake Iseo, Parco delle Erbe Danzanti is a wonderful public facility and a rare example of an innovative and bold territory management policies. The park enhances the lake environment and its historical heritage, combining botanical richness with low maintenance costs.

The park was designed by landscape architect Cristina Mazzucchelli, and received special recognition at the 2012-2013 edition from the Landscape Award Alliance of the European Council.

HISTORY

The 2-acre abandoned area was a property of the Italian State Railway Company which until 1998 used it as a depot for barges and trains moving steel products and waste.

While working on this project, the landscape architect took both the traces of industrial archeology and the wonderful surrounding landscape (the lake, the vineyards, and the hills) into account. She thus focused on humble materials and the very colors of the earth; she also managed to reduce maintenance costs with extremely practical solutions and several stretches of herbs and flowers which can “dance” in the breeze, making the park vibrant with life throughout the year.

THE PROJECT

This park is served by two bicycle lanes (Brescia-Paratico to the east, and Urago d’Oglio-Paratico to the west), developing in a succession of different landscapes – as if they were open “rooms” with their own dominant features. The overall result is a well-organized route crossed by two perpendicular axes, one in the middle of the park and one along the lake.
Among the differently themed landscapes, there are the “Garden of the Flowerbeds” (with large raised iron containers, arranged diagonally and overflowing with perennial herbaceous plants and ornamental grass), the “Stanza delle Onde” (“The room of waves” – paved with waves, decorative gravel, and grass), the “American grape pergola” (with vines and fragrant roses), the “water lily room” (made of two rectangular pools fitted with wooden seats, trees, shrubs, and perennial plants), the “room of the refreshment bar” (made of stretches of flowery meadows, grass, and trees), and the “shore” (obtained with stretches of spontaneous vegetation and ancient piers over the water – thoroughly restored – available for the visitors).

The materials used for decorating the floors and the furnishings of the abovementioned “rooms” include porphyry, Luserna and Sarnico stones, wood, and iron.
The park is also animated by weathering steel sculptures of jugglers (the same material used for the planters) by Paolo Mezzadri.

PLANTS

Carefully selected species are extremely abundant all over the park and include perennial and gramineous species, water and bulbous varieties, shrubs, and creeping plants – all in all, colors, looks and appearance change every single day, inevitably mesmerizing the visitors.
All those plants required very little maintenance, and are hardly affected by parasites. Most of them (Pennisetum alopecuroides “Hameln”, Miscanthus sinensis, Panicum virgatum, Stipa tenuissima, and the perennial Alchemilla mollis, Calamintha nepeta, Centranthus ruber, Euphorbia characias, Erigeron karvinskianus, Oenothera speciosa, Sedum “Autumn Joy”, Senecio vira-vira, and Stachys lanata) don’t even need any artificial watering. As a matter of fact, only the meadows are fitted with a proper irrigation system.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)