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San Giovanni Park is located in Trieste, in the San Giovanni district, near the University, in Piazzale Europa. It used to belong to the Provincial Psychiatric Hospital of Trieste; after a major restoration that made it look like an original English garden – with formal flower beds and large trees – it has now an extension of about 54 acres, with forty buildings of different sizes.

Inside the park, there’s a beautiful and extremely well-kept rose garden, opened in 2009. Flowers are arranged according to systematic, historical and ornamental criteria.

The garden was made with the help of Cooperativa Agricola San Pantaleone and funds from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region. It was designed as a contemporary garden by Vladimir Vremec.
It now included almost 5.000 rose species, old, contemporary and even extremely rare and impossible to find on sale. These latter species are hybrids created by British, German, French, Dutch, American and Japanese experts.

From the lower entrance on via San Cilino, the park can be visited on winding paths among staircases, tree-lined avenues, lawns, flowerbeds, bushes and ancient roses. Most modern species – like ”Alba” and “Perennial Hybrids” – can be found near the upper entrance, around Villa Bottacin.
On the upper terrace, right under the former Gregoretti pavilion, there are some “Gallica”, “Centifolia”, “Damascena” and “Centifolia Muscosa” varieties.

mentre sul terrazzamento superiore, sotto il padiglione dell’ex Gregoretti, sono collocate le classi ‘Gallica’, ‘Centifolia’, ‘Damascena’, ‘Centifolia Muscosa’ e le rose botaniche su ambedue i bordi delle scarpate. The sunniest escarpment, facing West, is covered with irises.

Alongside the former Gregoretti pavilion, the flowerbeds are full of ancient roses of the following species: “Chinensis”, “Tea”, “Perennial hybrids”, “Rugosa”, and “Canina”.
Along the perimeter, there are several species of climbing roses, botanical and hybrid varieties. On the fencing wall around the garden for the dogs, there are the following species: “Banksia”, “Gigantea”, “Bracteata”, and “Portland”.
Right above this area, there are some “Bourbon” roses, while next to the beech trees a collection of ancient “Moschata Hybrids” can be admired.

Around the parking lot of the psychiatric clinic and District n.4, there are some upsidedown L-shaped metal structures with climbing varieties, “Tea Hybrids”, and bunches of roses. In the lawns, beautiful specimens of the Synstilae species can be found, like “Hugonis”, “Kordesii”, “Luteae”, “Multiflorae”, “Wichurianae”, “Spinosissimae”, and “Noisette”.

As a tribute to the era of the former Psychiatric Hospital, a collection of roses from the Liberty and / or Art Noveau period (1888-1925) was planted in the large meadow between via Weiss and via Bottacin. They are arranged in symmetrical flower beds, on the sides of the path softened by arches covered with climbing roses of that time.

In the large sunny terraced area, under Pavilion H, at the north-east end of the park, there is the largest section of the rose garden, dedicated to the best known modern roses like “Tea hybrids”, bunch roses, and climbing roses – the flowers are interspersed with clematis and ornamental gramineous species, and thanks to the peculiar microclimate enclosed within the sandstone wall, Cistus and Phlomis bushes.

The escarpments are covered with ground roses and creeping rosemary.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)