Angera Rock (Italy)

The Rocca Borromea di Angera rises near Angera and dominates the southern end of Lake Maggiore. In the historic rooms of the fortress there are original frescoes, paintings and decorations. Inside the fortress there is the Doll and Toy Museum.

Originally owned by the archbishops of Milan, [1] the fortress includes a series of buildings, erected at different times between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries.

The square tower located in the western portion of the fortress belongs to the oldest nucleus, dating back to the Lombard period. The first extensions of this primitive structure were undertaken in the decades between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. [1]

After being granted by Clement VI to the family of Bernabò Visconti (1350), the fortress definitively became the property of the Borromeo family. [1]

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the Rocca di Angera was gradually transformed into a real "Middle Ages Interpretation Center" aimed at enthusiasts, families and school audiences. The last step of this progressive path was represented by the project on the construction and restoration of medieval gardens. To do this, a meticulous study was carried out on the codes and documents of the time that led first to the creation of a temporary exhibition on three main types of gardens, Il Giardino dei Principi, Il Verziere and Il Giardino delle Erbe Piccole, then to the realization of the same in the large esplanade overlooking Lake Maggiore. Outside the Rocca, the master gardeners of the Borromeo house have therefore started the realization of a project which, with the gradualness required by an initiative of this complexity, has led and will continue, year after year, to add and complete what described by those ancient codes. Close to the ancient church of the Angera fortress, many shrub species described by the ancient masters have already taken root: medicinal plants alongside other ornamental plants, cultivated according to precise rules and geometries, all to recreate in the ground - as it was once prescribed - the idea of ​​the "lost paradise".

[Source: Wikipedia]