A year to remember: the first after the restoration and the beginning of a new season for the Giardino di Pojega

A new beginning

Some years pass quietly, while others mark a turning point.

For the Giardino di Pojega, 2025 has undoubtedly been one of those moments we will long remember: the first year after the major restoration funded by the PNRR Parchi e Giardini programme, which restored clarity and light to an eighteenth-century garden that had remained suspended in time. When the gates reopened, we could not truly predict what would happen. We only knew the garden was ready. And the public response exceeded every expectation: visitor numbers more than doubled compared to the pre-restoration period, with a varied audience that included not only enthusiasts of historic gardens and garden clubs from across Europe, but also young people and families drawn to a different way of experiencing the Valpolicella.

The “The Healing Garden” project

Among the initiatives that shaped the year The Healing Garden project played a central role.  

The first edition of the Therapeutic Garden Days, created in collaboration with the hIRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria of Negrar Hospital, introduced an approach to the historic garden grounded in scientific evidence: numerous studies show the beneficial effects of contact with nature on psychological and physical wellbeing.

Within this historic setting, walking, observing and breathing in tune with natural rhythms becomes an experience that fosters balance and attentiveness – something clearly reflected in the participation of more than 900 visitors during the small festival held in May.

Experiences that generated new energies

The 2025 programme broadened the ways in which the garden could be experienced.  

The Yoga and Sound Bath sessions led by Carlo Cicchini and Eleonora Chiara Zamboni offered open-air practices dedicated to mindfulness, inner wellbeing and the rediscovery of oneself.

The Garden Safaris for children guided young visitors through botanical details and hidden corners, with the expert support of the librarians from Hermete, transforming the garden into a small narrative world of voices, readings and early discoveries.  

The English Cursive Workshop with Alidiparole brought renewed attention to handwriting as a slow, precise and contemplative gesture

The value of national networks of historic gardens

National days dedicated to gardens and historic houses also played a special role.  

The Botanical Treasure Hunt in April, Appointment in the Garden in June, the Venetian Villas Day in October and the National Agriculture Day promoted by ADSI in November — which also welcomed Minister Francesco Lollobrigida highlighted how valuable it is for the Giardino di Pojega and Villa Rizzardi to belong to the networks that safeguard and promote Italy’s architectural and botanical heritage.

A place where words flow freely

There were also moments when the garden became an open-air literary salon, welcoming personalities who left a meaningful mark.  

Writer Alessia Gazzola wandered through its avenues in search of inspiration. The Festival of Beauty, long connected to the garden, brought the voices of Antonio Caprarica and Guia Soncini to Pojega.

The Linea Verde Italia TV crew from Rai 1 hosted by Monica Caradonna and Tinto chose the garden as a key setting in the episode dedicated to Verona: a broadcast watched by over 2,300,000 viewers, setting a ratings record and bringing the Garden of Pojega into homes across the country.

Among the most moving encounters was that with Cristina Berrocal, wife of sculptor Miguel Berrocal, who lived and worked at Villa Rizzardi from 1967 to 2004. During the inauguration of the restored garden, she shared a passage from the Spanish artist’s unpublished memoirs that touched many:

“Villa Rizzardi became for me a machine for living, thinking and dreaming. For anyone wishing to visit the garden, entry was always guaranteed, because we could not enjoy such a privilege without sharing it in some way with others.”

Landscape architecture: at Pojega, a dialogue between architects, students and researchers

The year now drawing to a close was also one of exchanges with the world of landscape architecture with those who design, study and restore landscapes every day.  

Thanks to collaboration with the Order of Architects of Verona, the garden became an active space for reflection on how historic landscapes continue to live in the present.

The lectio magistralis by Roberto Masiero, former Professor of Architectural History at IUAV University of Venice, offered a reading of landscape as a political theme and a vision for the future.  

This was followed by a conversation with Lucia Krasovec Lucas, architect and researcher, who invited the public to consider what a garden truly is: a living place, constantly changing, “transformed by those who walk through it”.

The exchange continued with the visit of students from the Hong Kong Design Institute and the Bartlett School of Architecture – UCL, who for several days turned the Giardino di Pojega into an open-air classroom, exploring the relationship between the productive landscape of the territory and the aesthetic-sensory dimension of the garden — understood not only as a decorative space but as a cultural, functional and identity-forming element.

Dialogue with the territory and shared vision

In 2025, the garden also became an authoritative voice on landscape and sustainable tourism.  

The meeting organised with SIMTUR – Italian Society for Sustainable Mobility and Tourism, dedicated to hospitality operators in the Valpolicella, opened an important dialogue on gentle mobility, environmental responsibility and the enhancement of the territory.

In addition, Agostino Rizzardi spoke at the conference “Coltivare il Paesaggio”, held at Palazzo di Varignana in Bologna on 14 July, highlighting the role of the garden as a place where agricultural heritage and landscape culture converge in a shared vision.
 

Looking to the next season

With this spirit, we look ahead to the coming season.  
Our journey has only just begun, and we look forward to welcoming you back along its avenues.

See you in 2026: we reopen on Saturday 28 March.