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Villa Rizzardi with the Pojega estate - Garden of Pojega

Carlo Rizzardi purchased Villa Rizzardi with the Pojega estate in 1649, a possession with "pieces of plowed and meadow land with vineyards, morari, olive trees and other fruit trees..." strengthened in the following years with further acquisitions of land.

Since the sixteenth century, the Negrar area, fifteen kilometers from Verona, particularly favored by its proximity to the urban center and its optimal climatic exposure, was the subject of growing interest for city land investments. At the time, the habit of holidaying in a villa was not yet widespread and in the construction of country residences, priority was given to the rationality and functionality of the management center over the artistic beauty of the property.

It was Count Antonio Rizzardi who commissioned the Garden of Pojega to the architect Luigi Trezza who, for its construction, which took place between 1783 and 1796, was inspired by the gardens of the sixteenth-century Venetian tradition, in spite of the typically English canons in vogue at the time . At a time when the Italian garden was neglected to make way for the combination of lawn and woods, called the English garden, the Pojega garden, the last of its kind to be created in Italy, acquired a particular meaning.

The Pojega estate in Negrar has been the property of the Rizzardi counts since 1649, when it was purchased by Carlo Rizzardi, who expanded it with further acquisitions in the following years. It includes approximately twenty-five hectares of vineyards dedicated to the production of Guerrieri Rizzardi wines.
The importance of the complex is due to the extraordinary garden that Count Antonio Rizzardi (1742-1808) wanted to create, combining humanistic inspiration with a great sense of scenography and landscape, a triumph of perspective. He entrusted the design to Luigi Trezza (1752-1823), a Veronese exponent of Venetian neoclassical architecture, who managed to reconcile the spectacular and formal Italian garden with the romantic garden created to recreate a sophisticated natural environment.

It extends over an area of ??54 thousand square metres, partly on a slope and partly on flat ground, divided into three parallel routes which differ in terms of altitude, vegetation and relationship to the environment. The natural slopes of the land are enhanced with a semicircular appendage in which there is the "green theatre", with seven rows of steps in box hedges, cypresses and niches in the hornbeam, to which a tribute to the perspective is added with the avenue of carpini and the neoclassical style with statues that recall the classical age. The theater faces west, to better exploit the sunset lights and on the stage, hornbeam hedges act as wings for the actors. The final route takes place in the romantic garden with a forest of black and white hornbeams, field maples, downy oaks, holm oaks and yews. In the undergrowth, among numerous palm trees, menacing pumas, dogs and stone lionesses emerge.

Places of interest nearby:

• Itineraries to discover villas and parish churches in Valpolicella, food and wine itineraries
• Since 6 November 2015, San Giorgio di Valpolicella has been included among the most beautiful villages in Italy.
• The Lessinia Regional Natural Park is an oasis established in 1990 to protect and enhance the nature and historical heritage of a vast area located north-northwest of Verona.
• Negrar is about 15 km from the center of Verona and about 25 km from Lake Garda

Map: Villa Rizzardi with the Pojega estate - Garden of Pojega