Parco Shelley (Parco di Villa Magni)

Behind Villa Magni at San Terenzo, the ground rises in terraces from the sea. The sloping garden belongs to the Comune di Lerici and is used as an open-air stage.

Why it matters

The garden connects the Shelley story with the landscape. The garden surrounding Villa Magni passed to the municipality, which reshaped it as an open-air theatre for drama and music. The setting is the bay where the Shelleys' boat put in during the summer of 1822, a shore Mary Shelley described as especially beautiful; the commune has commemorated that memory with poetry installations and named trees.

What to notice

The garden's interest is both topographical and literary. Terraces and retaining walls descend toward the sea, framing Villa Magni, Lerici's keep across the water and the gulf to the west. Poetry installations on the Rocchetta and in the park include one dedicated to Shelley's "Lines Written in the Bay of Lerici". A holm oak bears Shelley's name. Memorial plaques on the villa wall include a 1907 tablet with Ceccardo's verses and a 1992 tablet with Shelley's words; the bay below San Terenzo is associated with Mary and Percy Shelley.

Context and history

The name Golfo dei Poeti was fixed in 1910, when the writer Sem Benelli used it in a funeral oration for Paolo Mantegazza, but the garden's identity is more recent. The 1997 bicentenary of Mary Shelley's birth brought an international conference to San Terenzo and the founding there of the association Amiche e Amici di Mary Shelley, which keeps the connection alive; since 1995 Lerici has also been twinned with Horsham, Shelley's English birthplace. The municipality manages the park as an event venue. The adjacent Villa Magni has a separate history from the garden.