The villa of counts Buonaccorsi rises on the top of a hill called “Montesanto”, not far from the historic centre of Potenza Picena. Dating from the XVI century, it was built on the location of a previously existing structure by count Raimondo Buonaccorsi, who made it the country residence of his noble family.
The most peculiar aspect of this villa is certainly he Garden Park, famous in Italy and in the world as a unique example of a perfectly preserved Italian garden. The famous English expert of gardens Georgina Masson, during a visit in the mid XX century, wrote that “the Buonaccorsi Garden is a perfect example of Garden in Marche and, thanks to the loving care of its owners, survived in an excellent condition to show us how the others appeared”
The park faces south-east and declines along the hillside towards the valley of the Asola creek. It is divided into five main terracings which descend down the hill and into two further intermediate levels, all linked by means of a wide central stairway.
Along the terraces there are many pathways delimited by laurel hedges, water basins and flowerbeds in the shape of stars or lozenges, rich with many varieties of carefully looked after flowers.
On the first terracing there are the “secret garden”and the “friar’s cave”. The latter hosts formal flowerbeds with statues representing Harlequin and Pulcinella. The third terracing is characterized by a statue of the goddess Flora placed inside a niche. In the fourth one there are other flowerbeds; around 1860 a terrace was added, adorned with magnificent yew trees; the fourth terracing is marked by long and tall scenery flats of parallel evergreen plants, mostly laurels. Beyond an imposing wall there is also an ample wood, which turns into an English garden with an artificial pond inside.
In the garden, adorned with niches, obelisks and mythological statues produced in Vicenza by the Marinali workshop, there are also fountains, water games (not all of them working), two caves, flowerbeds still keeping the original shape, little citrus trees and centuries-old and rare plants.