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The Negombo park
San Montano is a deep bay enclosed between Mount Vico and the promontory of Zaro in one of the most evocative corners of Ischia, an island where the culture of bathing has spread since the early decades of the twentieth century. The garden that we can admire today is the result of a long work begun in 1947 by Duke Luigi Silvestro Camerini, an entrepreneur and anti-fascist from Veneto (but also a traveler whom many remember perennially dressed in colonial clothes, who fell in love with the South after his confinement in Ponza), continued by the heirs and, in 1988, by the passionate intervention of Ermanno Casasco. In Camerini's original intention, the territory was to host an irrigated botanical garden with a complex, albeit rudimentary system of tanks and crossed by paths carved into the rock of Mount Vico.
It has not been an easy task to create a unique and vast property like Negombo, since at the time the land was divided into plots cultivated as vegetable gardens owned by many different families. To unite them it took a few years and not a few battles, but, in the end, cicas, cocos, Ficus elastica trees, Zamia and bird of paradise plants arrived which also justified that curious name stolen from a Ceylon bay, visited on one of the trips by the Duke. The spirit of Mediterranean nature was not supplanted by the arrival of African, Australian, Japanese or Brazilian essences. Its presence is perceived but it is not in contrast with the other essences. In the seventies the place evolved from a private to a hydrothermal park open to the public (to achieve self-financing and save this green heritage) and, in the eighties, the Duke's son, Paolo Fulceri Camerini, after having built the main swimming pools and services of bars and restaurants, he perceived the need to redesign the structure of the garden to make it a more harmonious and less 'wild' whole.
Commitment certainly completed and still today a constant “work in progress”. Hence the introduction of Mediterranean plants that were not present (or that had not survived) such as myrtle, olive tree, cork, but also, consistently with the original idea of a botanical park, the planting of new Australian or American essences, perfectly integrated into the whole (Metrosideros, Malaleuca, Macrozamia, Erytrina, etc.etc). And here, from a strictly architectural point of view, the recovery of the terraces, the dry stone walls, the central staircase, the insertion of water falls on the cliffs and the creation of new thermal experiences rather than trivial pools (the Labyrinth, Maya , the Templar, Onphalos, Nesti). Last but not least, the introduction of an "artistic" path into the landscape with the installation of numerous works of contemporary art starting with the large ceramic arch by Arnaldo Pomodoro "Arc-en-ciel" and the work "Riva dei Mari". Il Volo, a bronze work by Giuseppe Maraniello. The "Strale" by Lucio del Pezzo, "The eyes of Neri and Nesti" by Laura Panno, "Sprigionamenti" by Gianfranco Pardi, "Incontri" by Simona Uberto.
One of the strengths of Negombo is that this landscape cannot be separated from the practical function of the place. After all, the exploitation of the thermal baths for medical and health purposes is, as we all know, ancient history. The Romans already knew and frequented these places, where stood villas and gardens of great beauty. With ups and downs, over the centuries the spas were not completely abandoned and were rediscovered, as mentioned, at the beginning of the century, in conjunction with the enhancement of bathing.
Il volo
L'Arco in Cielo, Rive dei Mari
Gli occhi di Neri e Nesti
Lo Strale per il Negombo
Sprigionamenti
Incontri
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