Palazzo Lantieri

Already in the second decade of the 16th century, Palazzo Lantieri was to be considered the most beautiful in the city of Gorizia, hence its name Schönhaus (Casabella), taken after 1527 as the baronial predicate of the Lantieri family, who were then part of the Gorizia patriciate.

Famous guests of Palazzo Lantieri include Carlo Goldoni, who came here in 1726, and Pope Pius VI, who passed through Gorizia on his way to Vienna in 1783, staying at the Palazzo. But also the Countess of Chambord, wife of Henry V, who between 1883 and 1886 had a small grotto of Lourdes (still visible today) built in the garden of the villa.

The earliest certain documentation of Gorizia's gardens dates back to the 18th century, considered the golden century for local history; the cartography of the period shows that in the immediate vicinity of the palaces there was never a lack of green areas, although often of limited size, characterised by a simple geometric layout and hidden by the bulk of the building and the enclosure wall. What is missing in the greenery of 18th-century Gorizia, but already widespread in the rest of Europe, is the English garden layout that only became widespread in the following century. Prominent among the examples mentioned is the garden of the Schönhaus, which had probably not shied away from the presence of exotic or otherwise rare ornamental species derived from Persian influences, the pride of both public and private gardens of the time.

Today, the geometric layout of the old formal garden can still be discerned in Palazzo Lantieri, although the plants have been replaced over time. One can easily recognise the central avenue, which begins at the entrance portal and leads towards a grove from which four transversal avenues branch off, giving form to tree squares; the promenades thus intersect in two circular-shaped lay-bys alternately occupied by a flowerbed and an ancient stone table covered by a beautiful pergola. Along the sides of the turf (interrupted here and there by shrubs of later date) boxwood hedges build a repeated pattern, probably derived from the ancient formal design. Towards the end of the main avenue, the plants have been loosely and densely grouped with evergreens among which splendid horse chestnuts can be recognised.

The garden, like the rooms of the ancient residence, houses important contemporary works of art that express the feelings of artists who were inspired by the palace: the treasures of the past are now joined by installations of the best international avant-garde artists.