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Villa Comunale of Reggio Calabria was intended to be originally a botanical orchard and was realised by “Società Economica e Comizio Agrario”, which had already bought the area in 1850. A neoclassical building was built in 1880 inside the area to host the Meteorological and Geodynamic Observatory. The botanical orchard became then a state-owned property and was transformed in a public garden. A bronze bust of king Umberto I, which was made by Concesso Barca, was inaugurated in 1907 during an official ceremony with king Victor Emanuel I°. It was put at the side of Corso Garibaldi and the gardens were named after the statue “Giardini Pubblici Umberto I”.

Nowadays, the park covers a surface of about 1 hectare, which corresponds to 10,000 m2, and it is next to the promenade. It guards a remarkable botanical richness in exotic plants like palms, conifers (Cedrus spp.), pines (Pinus spp.) and araucarias, among them there is an Araucaria excelsa with a height of 25 meters, which survived a bombardment in 1943. There is also a Dracaena draco (4 meters high), plants of Nolina recurvata (sin. Yucca elephantipes), of Chorisia insignis or anti-monkey tree since the trunk is covered with thorns, of Cycas revoluta, of Howea fosteriana or kenzia (12 meters high), a false pepper (Schinus molle) of 5 meters, acanthuses (Acanthus mollis) and a camphor tree(Cinnamonum camphora).

It possible to find busts of some of the most important people of Reggio Calabria like Domenico Tripepi, the patriot Antonio Plutino and Rocco Zerbi, “Stele del Partigiano” (1944), a Monument to the Fallen during institutional service (1992), numerous Greek columns and the gate of Vitrioli house, which is made in stone of Syracuse and it is one of the few structures which remained after the earthquake in 1908.

The project “Villa Comunale Umberto I° – Giardino della Biodiversità” was defined in 2012 thanks to the agreement between Comune of Reggio Calabria, Arpacal and the Agricultural Department. It established the settlement and cleaning of pathways and the collocation of 16 panels describing the most important species.

In addition, “Stazione Sperimentale per le Industrie delle Essenze e dei Derivati degli Agrumi” is located next to the park.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)