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The so-called “Giardino dei Semplici”, also known as the “Garden of the Pavilion”, is inside the Ducal Palace of Mantua, in a square courtyard. It was designed in 1603 by Zenobio Bocchi and it is part of the impressive complex of over 8.5 acres, also including other small green spaces inside. It is part of the XVII century enlargement works to an older section dating back to the late XIII century.

The garden, with arcades on both sides, is divided into four flowerbeds where special officinal herbs used to be grown to treat and balance the four main dispositions of the human body, as per the XVI century medicine and science: stolidity, anger, melancholy and hot temper.

The well-kept and neat walkways, along with several compositions of flowers and plants – still visible today- were intended to mimic the Renaissance layout; to do so, drawings and descriptions of that time were scrupulously followed, thus resulting in the same style of the Gonzaga era, the lords of Mantua.

Just as it happened during the Renaissance, in the garden of the palace visitors can take a leisure stroll, relax in a very pleasant atmosphere and enjoy the beautiful sight of irises, box hedges (Buxus sempervirens) and several aromatic herbs.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)