Giardini Margherita

The Giardini Margherita are Bologna's nineteenth-century public gardens beyond the old city walls. Opened in 1879, the park combines curving paths, planted lawns and a pond with traces of a much older Etruscan landscape.

Why it matters

Emanuele Bertone di Sambuy designed the grounds in the tradition of English romantic parks. Their creation gave the expanding city a substantial public promenade, named for Queen Margherita, consort of Umberto I and the first queen of the Kingdom of Italy.

What to notice

The pond and informal planting preserve the character of the original landscape scheme. An exposed stretch of the Canale di Savena recalls the city's historic water system. A stone Etruscan tomb is displayed near the central lawn. Edoardo Collamarini's chalet of 1910 and Enrico Barberi's monument to poet Enrico Panzacchi, installed in 1912, add architectural and commemorative features.

Context and history

Works in 1876 revealed an Etruscan necropolis, excavated by Antonio Zannoni, before the gardens opened on 6 July 1879. The park became a principal site of the Esposizione Emiliana in 1888 and later hosted the national agriculture exhibition of 1935. Wartime vegetable plots during the Second World War marked a different use of the lawns within the continuing history of this civic landscape.