The Borgo Storico Seghetti Panichi near Ascoli Piceno in Marche region of central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

comprises a 13th to 18th-century villa, a 19th-century romantic landscape by Ludwig Winter (one of the Grandi Giardini Italiani), a 16th-century chapel to St. Pancras and a farmstead which has been converted into a hotel.

Villa Seghetti Panichi

There was originally a castle on the site of the villa, probably from the late 10th century, which was fortified in 1311 when it was known as ‘Castel della Lama’, now the name of the adjoining village

Castel di Lama Castel di Lama is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian region Marche, located about south of Ancona and about east of Ascoli Piceno. Castel di Lama borders the following municipalities: Appignano del Tront ...

. The castle was then a Guelph outpost in the war against the Ghibellines. The castle was a square building with a round watch tower on one corner, part of which is still visible in the current villa. In the late 17th century war declined in the region and from 1680 to 1750 the fort was transformed into a grand residence with an austere counter-reformation exterior.

Gardens (Parco Storico Seghetti Panichi)

In 1875, the owner of the villa commissioned Ludwig Winter, the German botanist and landscape architect who had just finished working on the

Giardini Botanici Hanbury The Giardini Botanici Hanbury, also known as Villa Hanbury, are major botanical gardens operated by the University of Genoa. They are located at Corso Montecarlo 43, Mortola Inferiore, several km west of Ventimiglia, Italy. History The gar ...

, to create a garden around the imposing villa. Winter found that the Tronto valley had a gentle microclimate similar to the Ligurian gulf and introduced his signature exotic palm trees that he had pioneered in Liguria. He complemented the soft hillside and views of the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

and Sibillini Mountains with a lake and winding gardens, now listed in the Grandi Giardini Italiani. As well as the palms, these include a miniature oriental landscape featuring ''

Styphnolobium japonicum ''Styphnolobium japonicum'', the Japanese pagoda tree (also known as the Chinese scholar tree and pagoda tree; syn. ''Sophora japonica'') is a species of tree in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. It was formerly included withi ...

'' "Pendulum" and "Prunus", and a large ''

Cycas revoluta ''Cycas revoluta'' (Sotetsu apanese ソテツ sago palm, king sago, sago cycad, Japanese sago palm) is a species of gymnosperm in the family Cycadaceae, native to southern Japan including the Ryukyu Islands. It is one of several species used f ...

''. Examples of large mature palms in the Parco Storico Seghetti Panichi include:Italian Gardens, Judith Wade, Rizzoli 2002 *'' Jubaea chilensis (spectabilis)'' *''

Phoenix canariensis ''Phoenix canariensis'', the Canary Island date palm or pineapple palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family Arecaceae, native to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. It is a relative of ''Phoenix dactylifera'', the true ...

'' *''

Chamaerops humilis ''Chamaerops'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Arecaceae. The only currently fully accepted species is ''Chamaerops humilis'', variously called European fan palm or the Mediterranean dwarf palm. It is one of the most cold-hardy ...

'' *''

Washingtonia filifera ''Washingtonia filifera'', the desert fan palm, California fan palm, or California palm,Flora of North America Association. ''Flora of North America: North of Mexico Volume 22: Magnoliophyta: Alismatidae, Arecidae, Commelinidae (in Part), and Zi ...

'' *'' Trachycarpus fortunei'' *''

Brahea dulcis ''Brahea'' is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae. They are commonly referred to as hesper palms and are endemic to Mexico and Central America.Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of th ...

Chapel

The chapel was built in 1608 and dedicated to St Pancras. It is decorated with frescoes of local saints St Emygdius and St Seraphin of Montegranaro (died 1604) from the Biagio Miniera school. Unusually, the 16th-century travertine altar faces west instead of east.

Visiting

The garden is open to the public during exhibitions and by special arrangement and to hotel guests.

References

External links