The Garden of Villa Grock
The clown Adrien Wettach seems to have wanted to leave an esoteric message to the city of Imperia disguised by the eccentricity of a large villa in the hills and in contrast to the enexorable mechanisation of port life, with its metal cranes, in the city below at seaside. Going up to that garden means entering another world of ours; one that relinquishes the spell of the utopian legend each and every day.
In 1927, when nearing fifty, Grock, the most celebrated clown of the 20th century, designs and builds a sumptuously extravagant villa in the hills of Oneglia, surrounded by a large park and with a stupendous view of the sea. He will call it Villa Bianca.
The exteriors are built to amaze: spacious porticos of rounded columns sculpted with symbols, countless frescoes with esoteric allusions, endless terraces facing the sea…
everything thought out, designed and commissioned with almost maniacal precision by the master of the house.
Formal closed-circuit watering systems considered in the vanguard at the time are constructed in the park. The first, an extraordinary fountain with intricate sprays of water, is located at the end of the main road and connected to the small lake below, on the islet in the middle of which is a gloriette with an imposing cupola reached by way of an oriental-style bridge.
They say the artist had a green thumb and that he loved bulbs in particular. On the whole, the aromatic plants of the Villa reflect the vegetal heritage common to the historic gardens of the Riviera. Today the place is characterized by the remarkably large Washingtonia robusta and the W. filifera soaring in front of the villa. The Chamaerops humilis accentuating the main entrance have a certain aesthetic appeal, and the majestic Cedrus atlantica and the C. deodora are also of interest.
The stone-lined footpaths bordered by unusual flowers invite you to take walks in search of an extraordinary and curious world, where the circus is interpreted and extolled in a thousand ways and effigies of the clown abound.
Address: Via Fanny Roncati Carli, Imperia
Contacts: tel. 0183/704337 (Provincia di Imperia)
Property: Provincia di Imperia
Timetables of opening to the public : Saturday and Sunday from 15.00 to 17.00 (winter)
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