Giardini di Villa della Pergola

About the garden

The gardens of Villa della Pergola, located in Alassio on the Riviera, offer a stunning view of the Mediterranean and represent a unique example of an Anglo-Mediterranean park. Created in 1875 by General William Montagu-Scott McMurdo and his wife Lady Susan Sarah Napier as their winter retreat, the property gained further fame when Scottish Baronet Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple purchased it in 1900. By 1907, it was celebrated as a “worthy rival” to the famous Mortola gardens of Sir Thomas Hanbury, a testament to the couple’s passion for nature and horticulture. The Hanbury family, who owned the property from 1922 to 1982, enhanced the garden over several decades, leaving a lasting legacy. 

In 2006, the Ricci family acquired the property to protect it from large-scale development, restoring and relandscaping it over six years under the guidance of renowned Italian landscape architect Paolo Pejrone. The garden was designed as a series of rooms, creating a dynamic experience as visitors move from one area to another. Notable for its botanical collections, the garden houses one of Italy’s important collections of Wisteria and more than 500 varieties of Agapanthus, along with citrus, cactuses, and rare species like Wollemia Nobilis. In 2022, the garden was awarded ‘The Most Beautiful Park in Italy’ and continues to be a horticultural marvel.