The Botanical Garden of Forgotten Fruits
Where is it?
The garden is located on a 1,200 m² plot of land in Via Aldo Ascione, near the Casa delle AIE, a rural building dating from 1790, designed by the great architect Camillo Morigia. The building, owned by the municipality, was the old Casa dei pignaroli (House of the Pignaroli), and was recovered and restored in the mid-1960s by the then Società Amici dell'Arte. Today it is home to one of the most renowned restaurants of traditional Romagna cuisine.
The initiative
The idea of setting up a Botanical Garden of Forgotten Fruits in Cervia is based on an idea of Umberto Foschi, which he had in the 1960s. From the idea relaunched by Renato Lombardi, the garden was finally realised and inaugurated in 2013 for cultural, educational, promotional and tourist purposes.
The Botanical Garden was created near the "Wood of newborns" and enriches the offer of public and equipped green spaces in Cervia. A reality of the Cervia area, which with the passing of the years and the growth of the plants, represents an opportunity to develop an increasingly accentuated role from a cultural, didactic and tourist point of view.
The plants
Blueberry, walnut, myrobalan, plum, jujube, some varieties of apple trees starting with quince, arbutus, black fig, strawberry grape, white mulberry, fox pear, blackcurrant, redcurrant, rowan, hazelnut, pear laurel, pomegranate, medlar, olive, almond and pear broccoli.
There are 40 tree species of forgotten fruit plants in the garden that once characterised the Romagna countryside and pine forests.
Each plant is presented with tags reproducing its name in Italian and Romagna dialect.
In the space of a few years, the young plants planted have grown and become a fundamental testimony to a tradition, which Umberto Foschi described in these words
"Around the house, next to the tall poplars and the young pines, a real botanical garden will be created with plants that were once common in the farmyards around the old rural houses; for now there is only rosemary, jujube and walnut, but it will be necessary to add pomegranate, medlar, rowan, lazzeruolo apple trees, quince, gooseberries, various types of old plum trees, citron grass, clumps of hawthorn and elder. In a word, the familiar plants from the farmyards and vegetable gardens of our childhood, which have been banned for some time because they are unprofitable, should come back to life".
Based on Umberto Foschi's suggestion and supplemented by new proposals, varieties of fruit were planted that were widespread in the countryside, custodians of a heritage of biodiversity to be preserved and enhanced.
Official Tourist Information Site of Cervia