The Tarot Garden is a park that is very impressive artistic, through the statues, figures of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. It is located in Garavicchio a fraction of Capalbio, and can be reached in 40 minutes by car from our hotel.
The history of the park
Following the inspiration occurred during a visit to the Parque Guell by Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, later reinforced by the visit to the garden of Bomarzo, Niki de Saint Phalle began the construction of the Tarot Garden in 1979.
Identifying Garden in the magical and spiritual dream of his life, Niki de Saint Phalle has been devoted to the construction of twenty-two imposing figures in steel and concrete covered with glass, mirrors and colorful ceramics for more than seventeen years old, flanked, as well as several skilled workers, a team of famous names in contemporary art as Rico Weber, Sepp Imhof, Paul Wiedmer, van Dok Winsen, Pierre and Marie Isabelle Le Jeune, Alan Davie, Marino Karella and especially by her husband Jean Tinguely, who died in 1991 , which created the metal structures of enormous sculptures and has integrated some with his mécaniques, assemblies of self-propelled mechanical elements in iron.
Work have also collaborated Ricardo Menon, friend and personal assistant to Niki de Saint Phalle, who also passed away a few years ago and Venera Finocchiaro, Roman potter; the smaller sculptures in the Garden (Temperance, the Lovers, the World, the Hermit, the Oracle, Death and the Hanged Man), made in Paris with the help of Mark Zitelli, were then produced polyester Robert, Gerard and Olivier Haligon.
The Swiss architect Mario Botta designed the entrance pavilion – a thick wall of enclosure with a single large circular opening in the center, thought of as a threshold that divides the Garden sharply from everyday reality.
Only finished in the summer of 1996 led to the creation of the Garden, as well as an enormous amount of plant, at a cost of around 10 billion lire entirely self-financed by the author.
In 1997, Niki de Saint Phalle created the Foundation The Tarot Garden whose purpose is to preserve and maintain the work carried out by the sculptor. On 15 May 1998 the Tarot Garden was opened to the public.
