Roberto Masiero’s Lectio Magistralis: Landscape Between Politics and Future at the Garden of Pojega

On January 31, Villa Rizzardi and the 18th-century Garden of Pojega in Negrar di Valpolicella hosted a culturally significant event focusing on Landscape, featuring a lectio magistralis by Professor Roberto Masiero. The event, part of the historic garden's enhancement program, saw the participation of Count Agostino Rizzardi, mayor of the Municipality of Negar di Valpolicella Fausto Rossignoli, and urban planning councilor Giulio Saturni.

Landscape: Between History, Politics, and Sustainability

“When does Landscape begin?” With this question, Professor Masiero opened his reflection, tracing the awareness of landscape back to the time of Petrarch, who in 1336 described his ascent of Mont Ventoux. Since then, landscape has taken on a subjective dimension, transforming into a representation of the soul. Masiero, architect and former Professor of History of Architecture at IUAV University of Venice, explored landscape as a narrative, a relationship, and a political concept, weaving a path through literature, art, and economics.

Landscape as Governance and Identity

From Don Quixote’s windmills to Robinson Crusoe’s island, from painting to territorial governance, Masiero depicted landscape as a place of exchange and relationships. This idea finds a powerful representation in Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s frescoes in Siena, where landscape becomes a reflection of Good Government. In this sense, landscape is politics and economy: oikos (home) and nomos (rule), the principles for managing a territory effectively.

The advent of digitalization, Masiero emphasized, demands a reevaluation of our relationship with landscape. The words we use to define it must be reconsidered, as well as the rules of coexistence and power management. Landscape is not just aesthetics but identity and belonging—topics that are more urgent than ever in cultural and political debates.

Landscape, Territory, and Environment: A New Perspective

Professor Masiero identified three key concepts that require deep reflection:

Territory: Historically tied to the legitimization of the nation-state and the industrial system. But in the digital era, does it still hold the same meaning?

Environment: An intertwining of nature and culture that raises questions about sustainability and future perspectives. Beyond the climate emergency, what new knowledge must we engage with?

Landscape: Traditionally viewed in aesthetic terms, but today it must question the meaning of identity and belonging. Is it still a tool for defining cultural and social boundaries?

These questions, sown like seeds, encouraged the audience to adopt a critical and conscious perspective.

The Garden of Pojega: A Living Landscape

There could not have been a more suitable venue for this lectio than the Garden of Pojega, designed in 1783 by visionary architect Luigi Trezza, who masterfully integrated the Italian and English garden styles, balancing aristocracy and democracy. A garden that acts as a window onto the surrounding landscape, a place where nature converses with history and evolves over time, always remaining contemporary.

Masiero’s message aligns perfectly with the philosophy of the garden: to look with fresh eyes, to understand that landscape is in constant evolution, and that we are the ones who shape its future. As the European Landscape Convention of 2000 states, landscape is "a certain part of the territory, as perceived by the populations, whose character results from the action of natural and/or human factors."

It is up to us to preserve and reinvent it: we write Landscape, we read Future.

Over a hundred guests attended the conference, including numerous architects from Verona eager to hear Professor Masiero’s lectio magistralis. The event was held as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which funded the restoration of the Garden of Pojega, set to reopen to the public on April 1.

To conclude the conference, attendees toasted with a glass of Pojega, the Valpolicella Ripasso wine from Guerrieri Rizzardi winery, named after the Garden itself—sealing a moment of culture and shared tradition in the spirit of the region’s winemaking heritage.