parks & gardens
With their 26 hectares of grounds, the Giardini Margherita are Bologna’s largest and most popular public park. Located near the stretch of boulevard between Porta Castiglione and Porta Santo Stefano, they are an ideal destination for residents and tourists, children and adults alike, offering a place to relax, unwind, play outdoors and reconnect with nature just steps away from the bustle of the city centre.
The design was inspired by English landscape parks, giving the gardens a striking, evocative appearance that has remained essentially unchanged. Harmonies and contrasts between the plantings shape the landscape, with native and deciduous species predominating. Lime trees, oaks, yews, cedars, impressive plane trees, pines, horse chestnuts and magnolias stand in groups that open onto broad lawns, threaded by a picturesque network of main avenues and smaller paths.
At the heart of the park lies an artificial lake fed by the Savena Canal, one of the many waterways that once ran through the city. Bordered in places by rocky banks of selenite, the lake features a chalet, a small bridge and an artificial island.
The park’s main square, which served for many years as the finishing point of the Giro dell’Emilia cycling race, contains a small building used by the city council in the 1950s as a children’s library and recreation centre. Since 1944, an equestrian monument to Victor Emmanuel II, created in 1884 by the sculptor Giulio Monteverde, has stood near one of the park entrances. In the 1960s, a group of amateur astronomers built a small astronomical observatory on the building’s terrace, where it still stands today.
The WWF also created an educational pond within the gardens for primary school children, recreating the flora and fauna typical of a wetland habitat.
History
Plans for the gardens date back to 1874, when the land was purchased and the design was entrusted to Count Ernesto Balbo Bertone di Sambuy, who had previously worked on Valentino Park in Turin and was later awarded honorary citizenship of Bologna. Sambuy personally supervised the work, which was carried out by the engineer Tubertini.
The park opened with a lavish ceremony on 6 July 1879 and was dedicated “to Her Majesty Queen Margherita”, who had visited the city the previous year. For the people of Bologna, it soon became known simply as “the Giardini Margherita”.
During construction, an extensive Etruscan burial ground was discovered on the site, yielding a wealth of artefacts now held at Bologna’s Civic Archaeological Museum. Two of the tombs discovered at the time were later reconstructed within the park. One is the remarkable travertine tomb that can be admired at the edge of the central lawn.
The Giardini Margherita have long hosted numerous events that have marked Bologna’s history, including equestrian competitions, concerts and motor races. In 1888, the park hosted the Emilia Exhibition of Agriculture and Industry, held alongside celebrations for the University of Bologna’s 800th anniversary. In 1988, it served as the landing site for Pope John Paul II’s helicopter when he visited the university for its 900th anniversary.
The park once also housed a small zoo, with two lions in a cage and a large enclosure containing fawns and young goats. These were later replaced by a reconstructed Villanovan hut, used for educational activities during school visits.
In the early 20th century, a dairy with a small cowshed was built within the park, along with the Fernando Fortuzzi primary school. Opened in 1917 and still operating today, the school was conceived as an open-air school to provide a healthier environment for children in frail health and those whose parents had been exposed to tuberculosis.
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