History
If it is true that gardens are the fruit of the obstinacy of those who create them, a place of honour should go to this garden, developed in successive stages over sixty years on barren, stony land, not in the least suitable for growing plants. The place is completely out of the ordinary, in the area leading to the most beautiful beaches on the island of Favignana, and the willpower of its owner, Maria Gabriella Campo, is equally out of the ordinary. Between 1960 and 1980 she created the first nucleus of the garden around the manor house, later extended with the purchase of neighbouring land which had been used for centuries as pirrere, quarries for the extraction of tufa.
These had been abandoned in the 1970s and subsequently used for dumping. The new owners undertook the superhuman task of reclamation and providing safety measures. The present garden, four hectares boasting 500 different plant species, was thus born, challenging the taunts of those who obstinately maintained that it would have been impossible to cultivate a garden in such a badly treated, structureless place.
On the contrary, the restoration of the quarries has resulted in a unique, spectacular landscape of areas interlinked by paths and passages, all below ground level. Thus the Impossible Garden became possible, wedding the vestiges of an archaeological industrial site with living, colourful collections of hibiscus, scented frangipani, waterlilies and pelargoniums. Pergolas, fountains and a pool for aquatic plants have all been created with total respect for the territory and the memory of an activity of great economic importance for Favignana. Throughout the four hectares the luxuriant vegetation demonstrates the power of plants in the Mediterranean climate and the determination to bring impossible dreams to life.
The Impossible Garden offers guided tours to the public since 2003.
