page_title: Villa Bologna
section_title: Garden
hierarchical_section_title: Villa Bologna / Garden
caption_attribution_description: English: The Baroque Garden of Villa Bologna was laid down at the time of the original construction of the villa in 1745.
context_page_description: Villa Bologna is a Maltese stately home, in the village of Attard in the central district of Malta. Built in opulent Baroque style, Villa Bologna has been called "the most beautiful 18th century country house to be built for a Maltese family" and "of similar grandeur to the finest palaces on the island".
  Villa Bologna is as interesting for its history as it is remarkable for its architecture and gardens which, after the neighbouring San Anton Gardens, is the largest historic gardens in Malta. Once the seat of the Counts della Catena, Villa Bologna is now held by the great-grandson of the 6th count Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland.
  Built during the rule of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and expanded during the British colonial period, Villa Bologna was central in the artistic, cultural, social and political history of Malta. It is a Grade 1 scheduled building and is a national monument.
context_section_description: Villa Bologna is a palatial country house typical of the Mediterranean Baroque. Though regally splendid in its own right, it is through its gardens that it acquires a character that is absolutely unique in the annals of Maltese architecture. The gardens of Villa Bologna were laid out in two phases. The original garden, better known as the Baroque Garden, dates back to the original construction in 1745. This garden was laid out in the traditional style with a symmetrical layout and citrus trees throughout. Later on, lawns were added and exotic trees were planted. This garden is remarkable for its nymphaea, one large and one small, the larger of which is said to be one of the best examples of the use of rocaille in Malta. To the east of the larger Nymphaeum is a Baroque gateway framing the larger Nymphaeum as one looks through it from the lawn. After his term as governor expired, Lord Strickland brought saplings back from Australia and planted the Grevillea and a couple of other Australian trees in the Baroque Garden.  Lady Strickland continued this trend of adding interesting exotic species to the garden and the part of the orange orchard closest to the villa slowly became a minor arboretum in which the orange trees were replaced with large exotic trees (the Grevillea, Jacaranda, etc.)  Some exotic trees were also planted around the border of this garden, including what is probably Malta's first and oldest avocado tree as well as a specimen of Pimenta dioica.  As these trees matured, the citrus in that area suffered. However, the shade provided created a pleasant area for entertaining so this part of the Baroque Garden was adorned with Maltese paving stones.  In the 1950s, the garden was further modified and two lawns were put down in the centre of the garden with a row of balustrades separating the paved area from the lawn.  Despite these modifications this part of the garden retains its Baroque character and is dominated by the Baroque statuary and Nympahaea.
  The New Garden was laid out by Lady Strickland after she married Lord Strickland in 1926. An Englishwoman, Lady Strickland came from a culture that reveres gardens and, being extremely wealthy in her own right, she was able to indulge her passion for gardens by letting her imagination run loose on the grounds of Villa Bologna. Thus, assisted by her friend, Count Giuseppe Teuma Castelletti, she laid out large gardens along the western side of the villa. The New Garden was most likely inspired by Villa Frere and La Mortola in Italy. She greatly increased the acreage of the estate, bringing the total up to around 7.3 acres and she added a line of cypresses recalling the famous gardens of La Mortola on the Italian Riviera. Moreover, she planted Malta's first grapefruit and avocado trees, an exotic vegetable garden, including asparagus, and cherry trees as well as tangerines. Furthermore, she increased the height of the property's walls and adorned them with crenels as well as hexagonal towers. Among the trees she added are carob trees, Norfolk pines and palm trees. Perhaps the most spectacular additions she put in were the Dolphin Pond and the Sunken Pond, two ponds that, for beauty and character, have no equal in Malta. Finally, she installed a watering system of irrigation channels made of stone and supplied by an underwater reservoir.
  Such was the scale of her work in the garden that in the 1930s she was employing 16 gardeners working full-time 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. The New Garden also contains a small cottage and a water tower.
caption: The Baroque Garden of Villa Bologna was laid down at the time of the original construction of the villa in 1745.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4128", "Image ImageLength": "3096", "Image Make": "SAMSUNG", "Image Model": "GT-I9505", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "I9505XXUFNC4", "Image DateTime": "2014:09:08 10:50:53", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "226", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:09:08 10:50:53", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:09:08 10:50:53", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4128", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3096", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "550", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "4"}