In the Garden


Inspiring Garden Design: Parco Sherrer

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Aaaah Winter…sitting by the fire, finalizing plans for spring trips to England, etc. It’s always difficult to remember that, in just 2 1/2 months, the ritual of “opening the garden for the season” will commence at Parterre. Winter affords me a busy kind of “happy,” prepping and planning. And for Winter 2025, I’m dipping back into an old tradition — a series of posts on “Inspiring Garden Design,” to get you in the mood for your garden opening. This first will recall my April/May ’24 trip to the Lake District of Northern Italy…and others will celebrate gardens in England, Newport, Chicago, Atlanta, and Boston.

While every gardener brings their own imprint to their creation, and certainly there is a notable variety in this idyllic part of Italy and Switzerland, some offer more “eccentricity” than others. Such is Parco Scherrer, a small botanical/sculpture garden created on a challengingly steep hillside overlooking Lake Lugano in Switzerland.

Located in the small, beyond-charming town of Morcote, the garden was started in 1930 by Arturo Scherrer, an erudite and well-traveled textile merchant. Scherrer’s passion for art and antiquities plays out against a collection of exotic and oriental plants also acquired during his travels including cypresses, camellias, camphor and eucalyptus trees, cedars araucarias, palms and bamboo woods.

The park consists of two areas with distinct styles: Mediterranean and Asian. Connected by paths, arbors and staircases, crisscrossing well-designed terraces; a stop at the Belvedere provides breathtaking views of the Italian gulf of Lake Ceresio, the hills of Varese and the Po Valley.

A shaded dell connecting to the Belvedere includes statues of Venus, Hercules, Juno and Jupiter sited along with other sculptural elements.

His sculptures and miniature structures modeled on buildings from the Mediterranean and Asian areas add a curiously compelling note to the visit as you gradually ascend past the Erechtheum, a 1:4 scale model of the second temple of the Acropolis made from Vicenza stone (I couldn’t resist photographing the juxtaposition of variegated agave and the stone maidens).

After reaching the highest point (where the Moorish-styled Temple of the Sun “awakens the dreams of the gardens of the Alhambra in Grenada),” the path then proceeds through the bamboo woods in a Far Eastern landscape that can surprise visitors with its Siamese, Arab and Indian constructions accompanied by flora characterizing those regions. As you pass the Renaissance Fountain (seen also in the Feature image) to start your descent

you are presented with a series of structural features, here the Siamese Tea Pavilion. Each is richly ornamented with decorative detailing on both the interior and exterior and set within a landscape ornamented with more sculptural elements.

The “Palazzina,” set in an Indian Garden, is modeled on a Renaissance building, the “Palazzo Salo” in Brugine, near Padua.  The dreamy interior of the building is a women’s compound in the Mughal style with a ceiling painting detailing the exact location of the heavens at the time of Mrs. Scherrer’s birth.

To the right of the building is a series of sculptures including four stone elephants, below three striking cobras, beneath a model of the sacred cow of Mysore.

And at some point in our return to ground level, we came upon a spontaneous photo shoot taking place… no surprise that Parco Scherrer seems the perfect spot for such creative endeavors.

In closing…I couldn’t resist including a colorful auberge along the water, with one of many churches looking down upon Morcote adding another touch of Switzerland to the scene.

Arturo Scherrer died in 1956, bequeathing the garden to the Morcote Municipality to be preserved as originally conceived by him; he also graciously insisted that his creation be open to the public, with no entry fees. Be sure to make a stop in Morcote, right on the lake road running between Italy and Switzerland; yet another good excuse to include the gardens of the Lake District in your travel plans!

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About Bettie Bearden Pardee

Author of Private Newport and Living Newport, garden furniture designer (The Parterre Bench), national lecturer, and entertaining expert. An honoree for the second year on "The Salonniere 100 America's Best Party Hosts", she was also the host and creative producer of "The Presidential Palate: Entertaining at the White House".

5 thoughts on “Inspiring Garden Design: Parco Sherrer

  1. Okay, now…I have “more dreams.” Such meticulous details…WHO DOES that!!! So very beautiful…*sigh* franki

  2. LOVELY LADY,

    U – R … ‘THE GIFT’ – THAT KEEPS *** GIVING!

    MERCY BUCKETS,

    FONDLY, TOM

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