Villa Baruchello

The villa is located in the Marina Picena district of Porto Sant’Elpidio, a short distance from the shoreline. The structure is named after the last family owners from whom the municipality purchased it in 1980 to transform it into the current public park and botanical garden. Access is marked by an avenue lined with majestic holm oaks leading to the front of the building, where there is a collection of conifers, including the Lebanon cedar, Austrian pine, black pine, and red and white firs, along with the typical cypress of Mediterranean flora.

The garden boasts noteworthy evergreen species, such as the tall Canary palms and the dwarf palm, unique to our climates, along with a specimen of cycads, considered a living fossil. The entrance flowerbeds are complemented by bushes of pittosporum, hawthorn, barberry, spiraea, and small trees of lagerstroemia with finely crafted branches. To the north, among old Aleppo pines and a solitary linden tree, a large plane tree with peeling bark, a wild pear tree, and a weeping sophora stand out.

The inner part of the garden centers around a fountain that in summer is covered with white water lilies. At the back, a small staircase guarded by two Carrara marble sphinxes leads into an oriental oasis of bamboo and dwarf palms, which precedes the lush park of holm oaks and magnolias. At the top of the hill, there are some swamp cypress trees, while meandering along the forest paths leads to a medieval-style tower built of bricks.