Riserva Naturale Monte Casoli di Bomarzo

Bomarzo is famous today for the "Park of the Monsters", name that has been given to Orsini's "Sacred Woodland", one of the most important places of Italian architecture and landscape. It is a 3-hectare park built between 1552 and 1580 according to the will of Vicino Orsini: following his advice, a series of fantastic structures was created by shaping huge volcanic boulders existing in the area, with the aim to create a garden of delights, rich in new works of art surrounded by the sinuous green architectures of an Italian garden.

The charming tufaceous plateau of volcanic origin derives from the digging action carried out during the millennia by the watercourses Sodera in the south and Vezza in the north.
You can reach it by taking a partly dirt road leaving from the historical town center of Bomarzo, following the indications to the "Park of the Monsters" and crossing the entrance, at about 2,5 km from the town. You can park the car near the small church of Santa Maria in Monte Casoli, characterized by a medieval structure which was enlarged in the 16th century.

The geographical area where the Reserve and the enchanting town center of Bomarzo are situated lies at the crossroads of ancient and very important ways of communication. In the Etruscan age, the route linked the Tyrrheanian coast and the powerful city-state of Tarquinia to the Tiber valley, a way of communication since prehistory.

Bomarzo develops on one of the last rocky spurs (peperino) facing the Tiber valley.
These outermost spurs are characterized by not very thick banks of lava rocks which rise above large plains of clay continuously broken up by the changeable meteoric events. The weathering of the clays leads to the collapse of huge and shapeless blocks downhill.