PARCO DELLA ROCCA DI ARONA
In the summer of 1800
Stendhal watched as
Arona's fortified castle was demolished and described it as follows: "an
impregnable fortress encircled by five walls that render access impossible, with
a tall slender tower topped by a waving flag".
Today little remains of this
monument and only the designs of a project mentioned in the historical archives
of the Borromeo family are left to us of its surrounding gardens, which would
have been located below the fortress just above the medieval village, between
the Porta Principale (Principal
Door)
and the
"Torre degli Innocenti". They were to have been
planted on four long terraces connected by double flights of steps down the
middle and surmounted by a Baroque temple carved in the limestone.
Just outside
of the castle walls an artificial grotto would have been carved out of the
limestone walls at the top of the gardens belonging to the Pecco-Gajo property.The project was never
completed, perhaps because of military requirements, since the garden would have
occupied an area just outside the walls of the fortress. Today a verdant park offers visitors the
opportunity to spend a special day around the pond located there or at the
children's playground.
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