by Chiara Giacobelli
In the heart of Umbria, near the charming village of Montegabbione, in the province of Terni, there is a place unlike any other on earth; a world of its own in which you enter driven by simple curiosity, but you leave different, more aware and enriched. We are talking about La Scarzuola, a historical, artistic and cultural project with many symbolic implications, which presents itself as a game of references to the world of literature, spirituality, ancient myths and legends that have been handed down for centuries.
Visiting La Scarzuola is a 360-degree experience that is so intriguing and at the same time ‘Complicated’ – another name used to refer to the site in question – that it becomes necessary to be accompanied by the owner himself, the only one capable of to explain to its guests which magical universe they have landed in and what the multiple meanings of what they will encounter along the way are. The large amphitheater, the numerous labyrinths scattered in a more or less visible way, the door of love, the green areas, the crystal pyramid, the Tower of Babel: these are just some of the elements that dot this journey between dream and reality guided by narrating voice of Marco Solari, the current owner.
Solari purchased the complex in the 1980s to make it his private home, without yet knowing that it would become the very reason for his life. To those who go to visit him and book well in advance, paying just ten euros for the entrance ticket, Marco Solari tells it like this: “Scarzuola is a symbolic and alchemical journey that unfolds with the open soul revealing metaphors of all lives and an initiatory relationship is established between the convent (sacred city) and the theater factories (profane city), overloaded with symbols and secrets, references and quotations”.
The convent he refers to is an ancient monastery founded right here in the 13th century by Saint Francis. Between this spiritual reality of the origins and the house which has now become a museum, stands in the middle – in addition to many years of history – the figure of Tomaso Buzzi, uncle of the owner, as well as a famous architect, designer and artist of the twentieth century. It was he who took over the now ruined convent and transformed it into his personal and highly original Ideal City, full of references to literature, music, alchemy, esotericism, mythology, botany, chemistry, astrology and obviously to art. Inspired by the book ‘Hypnerotomachia Poliphili’ by Francesco Colonna from 1499, La Scarzuola intertwines Neomannerism with Escher’s stairs, Borges’ labyrinths with references to the monstrous, or divine, figures of antiquity, in a dreamlike and elusive crescendo that at the time remained unfinished.
His nephew Marco therefore had the task not only of deciphering the incredible work of art, the fruit of a brilliant mind, but also of restoring order to it, restructuring it, completing it as much as possible and finally opening it to the public, taking on the task himself. commitment to tell something so mysterious, surreal, but undoubtedly fascinating.
