Mostro mash

Nestled between Rome and Florence, the hillside town of Bomarzo appears calm and unassuming. But down the hill, just below a Renaissance palace, appear the monsters—i mostri. More than 400 years ago, artists carved beasts and mythological figures into Pier Francesco “Vicino” Orsini’s land, a 29-acre park where mystery and wonder emerge from boulders and outcroppings of Tufo stone.  

This summer, those statues appeared on the cover of Archaeology Magazine for a story highlighting the research of Art History Professor John Garton. The glossy cover photo was taken by Garton, who is working on an international project to preserve the site. With scholar Luke Morgan of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, Garton is co-editing a forthcoming two-volume book and leading the Digital Bomarzo Project, which uses modern imaging technology to thoroughly document the site and better identify what the original park may have been like. 

 It’s not the first time Garton’s Bomarzo research and photos have earned a magazine feature. Smithsonian magazine covered the project last fall and explored the mysteries of the Sacro Bosco—“a rambling woods filled with surprises,” Garton says, “frightful beasts and ancient ruins.”