Visiting this location means undergoing a unique experience.

The places to visit are numerous: the lake touches Lombardy, Piedmont, and Switzerland. Its western shore belongs to Piedmont (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and Novara), its eastern shore to Lombardy (Varese), while the northernmost part of the lake belongs to Switzerland (Canton Ticino).

Second in size only to Lake Garda and second in depth only to Lake Como, Lake Maggiore, or Verbano, is unmatched by any other in terms of flora, fauna, and creativity.

The sublime mathematician meets the sublime dynamic, and they triumph together.

The noumenon navigates with the phenomenon, and the will comes to terms with representation.

THE BOTANICAL GARDENS OF VILLA TARANTO

In 1931, Captain Scozzese decided to purchase the property from the Marchioness of Sant’Elia to transform it into an exemplary English garden, located in a part of Italy that, despite its greater softness and richness of tones, could remind him of his native Scotland. This work had to reconcile two fundamental needs: aesthetic and botanical. Botanical needs, as various vegetation types needed to find conditions of soil and climate as ideal as possible. The creation of the new gardens went through several phases of work until their completion in 1940.

Many thousands of plants, imported from all over the world, constitute very rare collections. Among the most significant features are: the “Valletta,” created after extensive excavation work; the irrigation system, with water pumped directly from the lake into a large reservoir and then distributed to every corner of the property; the “Terraced Gardens,” with their little waterfalls, pool, and ponds for water lilies and lotuses; the “Winter Garden” and the “Marsh Garden”; ornamental fountains and water features. Having thus created “his” garden, which he named Villa Taranto in memory of an ancestor, Marshal McDonald, who was made Duke of Taranto by Napoleon, the Captain wanted the meaning of the kind and powerful work to be projected into the future and, with an example of exquisite generosity, donated the property to the Italian State, expressing the desire for his work to continue into the future.

Today, the botanical heritage of the Gardens of Villa Taranto is vast: it includes around 1,000 non-native plants and about 20,000 varieties and species of particular botanical value. The Villa is not open to visitors, as it is used as the headquarters of the Prefecture of the new Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola.

Since 1952, the Gardens have been open to the public from April to October, and the number of visitors now exceeds 150,000 per year. From Australia, the Americas, Europe, and everywhere, numerous groups of scholars and enthusiasts come to Villa Taranto, attracted by the interesting botanical collection, the perfect organization, and the very courteous hospitality.

To Captain Neil Mc Eacharn, who died on April 18, 1964, and whose remains now rest – together with those of his administrator, Dr. Antonio Cappelletto’s family – in a Chapel-Mausoleum specially built in the gardens, has succeeded the Botanical Gardens Villa Taranto “Cap. Neil Mc Eacharn” entity, with the precise aim of preserving this unparalleled jewel of botany and natural beauty for Italy and the whole world.

By visiting the Gardens, each person will rediscover intimate scenes and fantasy figures hidden in water transparencies or among the stretches of mysterious flowers sacred to Egyptian mythology. From the romantic Valletta to the expanse of Heaths, from the greenhouses with “Victoria cruziana” to the avenues of Azaleas, Maples, Rhododendrons, and Camellias, from the Dahlia gardens with over 300 varieties to the myriad colors of autumn blooms, against the backdrop of the Italian Gardens, or in the golden autumn veil, VILLA TARANTO offers us equally unforgettable images of its ever-renewed beauty.

https://www.villataranto.it