Subjects
Subjects
The Piercy villa, built by Benjamin Piercy between 1879 and 1882, is an English colonial-style manor house, characterized by a quadrilobed rectangular main body with circular turrets at the corners and a large garden. The building, created as a hunting lodge and then expanded, has architectural elements inspired by a small medieval castle. The villa is located within the vast agricultural estate of Badde Salighes, acquired and developed by Piercy starting in 1863, as a model of modern agricultural enterprise. The original estate extended over about 3,700 hectares, including numerous rural buildings and a village functional to productive activities. Today the park has an area of about 4 hectares and is bordered by a perimeter, dry wall. The garden is configured as a formal Italian-style garden with a rectangular and symmetrical plan. It develops in front of the villa, around a central axis that crosses an oval flowerbed with a circular tub from the access bridge to the area, to reach the main entrance of the villa, lined with a double flight of stairs. It ideally cuts the villa and continues up the steep stone staircase that leads to the wooded garden in the hilly area behind, to the north. The green space of the formal garden is organized in five flower beds with an English lawn and different varieties of roses. Beyond the garden there is a monumental beech tree (diameter 270 cm, height 20 m). To the east, an avenue lined with centuries-old calocedron trees that leads to the side entrance of the villa and a spectacular boxwood tunnel. Behind the villa, a stone staircase leads to the hill and the garden-forest: a unique vegetation context where native and imported species coexist. The Engineer planted trees in the park, in perfect English style, that found their ideal habitat and integrated perfectly. He combined different shades of green and preferred trees with conical and cylindrical shapes to create chromatic and volumetric contrasts. In this area there are two examples of monumental Spanish fir and Himalayan cedar trees. Beyond the current perimeter of the garden, but once an integral part of the park, is the so-called agora of badgers where you can admire specimens over one hundred years old.
Aspects of interest
The composition combines a regular and symmetric planimetric structure, typical of a formal garden, with romantic and naturalistic landscape elements, such as wide views and spontaneous woods, giving the park an important aesthetic and botanical value, as well as representing a unique example in the regional context for its integration between colonial architecture and landscape. Project inspired by the romantic garden, characterized by a balance between wide open views, plateaus and dense forest, which integrate native vegetation with exotic species of great botanical value.
Bibliography and webography
I. Camarda, Il giardino botanico montano di Badde Salighes. Sassari, Delfino, 1997.
L. Carta, Benjamin Piercy (1827-1888), in "Quaderni Bolotanesi", n 13 (1987).
L. Carta, Dal Galles alla Sardegna: Benjamin Piercy e le Ferrovie. Bolotana, Associazione culturale "Benjamin Piercy, 2021.
A. Della Marmora, Itinerario dell'isola di Sardegna. Cagliari, Alagna, 1868.
Giardini e parchi storici della Sardegna, testi di M. Ballero e A. Soddu Pirellas. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2023
G. Mameli-Piercy Giustiniani, Tra il Galles e la Sardegna. Storia della famiglia Piercy. Sassari, Carlo Delfino Editore, 2018.
F. Masala, Architettura dall'unità d'Italia alla fine del '900. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2001.
Villa Percy, in Italian Botanical Heritage.
Structure category: natural monument
Content type:
Park or garden
Giardino
Usability: Open
Province: Nuoro
Common: Bolotana
Macro Territorial Area: Central Sardinia
POSTAL CODE: 08011
Address: strada Badde Salighes
Telephone: +39 329 0275598 +39 334 3134553
E-mail: villapiercy@gmail.com
Website: sites.google.com/view/villapiercy
Facebook: www.facebook.com/villapiercy
January - December
Saturday - Sunday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Information on tickets and access: The cost of tickets is temporarily unknown, it is advisable to contact the structure in advance at tel. +39 329 0275598 and +39 334 3134553, or via email, for information about it, and to check visiting times and usability.
Access mode: For a fee
Tickets :
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