Literary garden · 18th century · Rome

The Parrasio Wood

The Bosco Parrasio, known in English as the Parrasio Wood or Parrasian Grove, is the garden-theatre of the Accademia degli Arcadi, a literary academy founded in Rome in 1690 by a group of scholars seeking to reform Italian poetry after the excesses of Baroque style. Laid out on the Janiculum Hill in the early 18th century following a gift from King João V of Portugal, the tiered garden with its outdoor theatre and informal planting represents one of the few surviving pastoral literary landscapes in Rome and remains the official seat of the Arcadian Academy to this day.

At a glance

Type: Literary garden and outdoor theatre; seat of the Accademia degli Arcadi
Period: Academy founded 1690; Bosco Parrasio laid out 1725–1726; redesigned by Antonio Canevari
Style: Arcadian pastoral garden design; informal landscape with architectural elements
Location: Janiculum Hill (Gianicolo), Trastevere district, Rome, Lazio, Italy
Coordinates: 41.8895° N, 12.4656° E
Current use: Active seat of the Accademia degli Arcadi; garden open to limited public visits

Overview

The Bosco Parrasio is one of Rome’s most distinctive and least-visited heritage sites, a small terraced garden on the slope of the Janiculum where literary academicians have met since the early 18th century to read and discuss poetry in a deliberate re-creation of the pastoral Arcadia of classical antiquity. The garden is structured around a central oval amphitheatre flanked by stone benches and shaded by ilex and laurel, with an upper belvedere and a lower area featuring an 18th-century fountain. The Accademia degli Arcadi, officially styled the Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi, continues to hold its sessions here.

History

The Accademia degli Arcadi was founded in Rome in 1690 by a group of intellectuals including Queen Christina of Sweden’s former circle, with the explicit aim of combating the ornamental excess of Marinism and returning Italian literature to the classical simplicity associated with Arcadian pastoral poetry. Members adopted pastoral pseudonyms and convened in gardens and villas around Rome. The academy gained prestige rapidly, attracting poets, cardinals, and sovereigns as members throughout the 18th century.

In 1725 King João V of Portugal donated funds for the purchase and redesign of a permanent garden on the Janiculum. The architect Antonio Canevari designed the tiered layout with its oval theatre, stone stairways, and planting scheme, creating a purpose-built Arcadian landscape. The garden was inaugurated in 1726 and has served as the academy’s principal seat ever since, surviving political upheavals and the dissolution and refoundation of many other Roman academies.

What you see

The Bosco Parrasio is entered through a discreet gate on Via di Porta San Pancrazio on the Janiculum. The garden rises in three terraces: a lower level with the 18th-century oval amphitheatre whose stone benches can seat several dozen; a middle level with ilex and laurel plantings and a 17th-century fountain; and an upper terrace with views towards the Tiber valley. An 18th-century building at the upper level houses the academy’s archive, library, and assembly room. The overall atmosphere is intimate and deliberately anachronistic, little changed from the 18th-century engravings that document the garden’s original appearance.

Cultural significance

The Bosco Parrasio is unique in Rome as a purpose-built literary landscape that has maintained continuous institutional use for three centuries. The Arcadian Academy’s membership across its history included Metastasio, Goethe, and numerous popes and princes, making the garden a physical locus of European intellectual culture during the Enlightenment. As one of the few surviving 18th-century designed gardens in Rome that has not been absorbed into a villa or palace complex, it has considerable value as a document of garden history and literary culture.

Practical information

Address: Via di Porta San Pancrazio 1, 00153 Rome (Gianicolo)
Access: The garden is the seat of an active private academy; check with the Accademia degli Arcadi for visiting arrangements, which are subject to the academy’s own schedule
Nearby: Passeggiata del Gianicolo; Villa Pamphilj gardens; Trastevere neighbourhood

Getting there

The Bosco Parrasio is on the Janiculum Hill above Trastevere, approximately a 20-minute uphill walk from the centre of Trastevere or from the Trastevere rail station. Bus line 115 runs from the city centre to the Gianicolo, stopping near the garden. From Piazza Venezia take bus 23 or 280 to Trastevere, then walk up Via Garibaldi and Via di Porta San Pancrazio. The area is not served by metro; walking or bus are the practical options.

Sources & resources

Historical events at this place (1)

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