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00 Bomarzo
Stemma di Bomarzo

Lazio · Viterbo

Bomarzo

The Tuscia village below a garden built by a grieving condottiero for his dead wife, all stone monsters and no apology for it.

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
1 h 19 min from Rome
By train
Station in the comune
Population
1,674

Known for

  • SACRO BOSCO

    Vicino Orsini's 16th-century stone-monster garden, attributed to Pirro Ligorio, built in mourning for Giulia Farnese.

  • ORSINI

    The condottiero family who held Bomarzo from the medieval period and built both the Palazzo above and the garden below.

  • NOCCIOLA DEI MONTI CIMINI

    Hazelnut growing area surrounding the village; Bomarzo is a member of the Città della Nocciola network.

  • TUSCIA

    The commune also lies inside the Tuscia DOP production zone.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J11°
  • F14°
  • M15°
  • A19°
  • M24°
  • J29°
  • J34°
  • A33°
  • S27°
  • O22°
  • N16°
  • D12°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

The festa: Anselmo di Bomarzo, 24 April

Why come

Bomarzo sits on a lava spur of the Monti Cimini, fifteen kilometers east of Viterbo, on the wooded edge of the Tuscia. The village is small and medieval, dominated by the palazzo above it, its lanes stepping down to a lower piazza. The wooded valley below holds the reason most people come: the Sacro Bosco, also called the Parco dei Mostri, designed for Vicino Orsini's garden by Pirro Ligorio, with sculptures attributed to Simone Moschino.

The garden was abandoned for centuries before the Bettini family restored it in the 1950s; Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau visited in the 20th century, drawn by the same strangeness that had emptied the place out. What the town adds up to is a pairing of restraint and excess set close together: a modest hill village and medieval rocca standing over a valley where one man built monsters in stone because ordinary grief needed no ordinary monument.

The Sunday letter

Bomarzo is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Bomarzo comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.

Read on

Bomarzo in our articles

How to get there

From Rome (FCO), about 2 hours by car.

Naples / Salerno (NAP) is about 3 hours away.

By car from the centre of Perugia 1h 39m or Siena 2 hours.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Rome or Florence?

Coming by train into Roma Termini? Bomarzo is about 1h 20m away by road.

Every town within reach of Rome airport.

Bomarzo, photo 1
Bomarzo, photo 2

What to see

  • Sacro Bosco (Parco dei Mostri)

    Stone giants, an ogre's mouth carved into the bedrock with a bench inside it as a tongue, and a house built to lean. The inscriptions across the rocks make clear the intent was to astonish rather than please.

  • Palazzo Orsini

    Built into the medieval rocca above the village, now partly a school and museum.

  • Centro storico

    Medieval village on a lava spur, with stepped lanes leading from the lower piazza up to the palazzo.

  • Piramide Etrusca

    Pre-Etruscan or Etruscan altar carved into the bedrock in the woods near the village, rediscovered in the 1990s.

  • Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta

    Parish church in the village center, with a Cosmatesque-style floor and 16th-century frescoes.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Bomarzo fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

Living here

  • Population 1,674
  • Commuter belti
  • Pharmacy: none mapped
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Rome, 1 h 54 min drive
  • Regional capital Roma, 1 h 19 min drive

Common questions

What is Bomarzo known for?
Bomarzo is the Tuscia village below a garden built by a grieving condottiero for his dead wife, all stone monsters and no apology for it.
Where is Bomarzo?
Bomarzo is a comune in the province of Viterbo, in Lazio, at 263 meters above sea level.
What is the nearest airport to Bomarzo?
Rome (FCO), about 2 hours by car.
Can you get to Bomarzo without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Perugia to Bomarzo?
About 1h 39m by car.
When is the best time to visit Bomarzo?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 34 degrees, and December the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in Bomarzo?
The town keeps its patron saint's day: Anselmo di Bomarzo, 24 April.
Which other towns are like Bomarzo?
Vogogna, Campello sul Clitunno and Donnas.
How many people live in Bomarzo?
1,674 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 263 m
  • Population: 1,674
  • Surface area: 39.65 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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