Giardino Bortolotti detto dei Ciucioi | Grandi Giardini Italiani

Information

2026 Season
Opening Hours
Special openings may be possible during the months of January, February, March, and December, depending on weather conditions.

Individual Visits The lower part of the garden is open on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and from Wednesday to Sunday, as follows:

March 30 - May 31: 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
June 1 - September 7: 8:30 AM - 6:30 PM
September 9 - October 25: 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
October 26 - December 31: 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Entrance is permitted until half an hour before closing time.

For the guided tour schedule and reservations, please consult the property's website.

Admission
Individual Tour to the lower part of the garden
Full Price: €2.00
Reduced Price: €1.00

Guided Garden Tour (includes the upper part of the garden)
Duration: 75 minutes
Full Price: €9.00
Reduced Price: €6.00
Groups (max 25 people): €120.00

Immersive Sensory Visit
(Every Friday, June to September, at 8:00 pm, by reservation)
Duration: 50 minutes
Flat rate: €9.00

Contact us
Vicolo dei Ciucioi
38015 Lavis (TN)

T. 0461 437031 (biglietteria)
T. 0461.1752525 (Consorzio turistico Piana Rotaliana Königsberg)
M. 327 7660813 (Ecoargentario)

www.ecoargentario.it

History

The Bortolotti Garden is a unique creation of a singular nature. Known as dei Ciucioi (from the German ''at the customs''), it is an exemplary representation of the peculiarity of green architecture in the Alpine context. Transformed into an unexpected green setting, even the rocky cliffs of Doss Paion overlooking the town of Lavis are the scene of a symbolic narration that makes an unmistakable mark in the landscape. After years of restoration, the Municipality of Lavis opened this priceless treasure to the public in 2019. The complex bears the name of its creator, Tommaso Bortolotti (Lavis, 1796-1872), who devoted every resource to the realisation of his visionary project. Building, which began on the lower terraces in the 1830s, continued in the following 20 years with the construction of a large pergola greenhouse. The completion of the upper levels with the backdrop architectures of the ''church'' and the ''palace'' can be dated to the period 1855-1872 and expansion in the western area with the ''gardener's house'' and the ''castle'', which are today's designations related the reading of the site by the architects who oversaw the restoration. After the owner's death, the architecture remained substantially intact until the first decades of the twentieth century. The garden, subject to numerous changes of ownership, lost its formal characteristics with overgrown vegetation, widespread collapse of the terraces, and washing away of the plastering that defined the scenery.

The former entrance leads to the walkway dating back to the time of the ''gardener's house''. The path gives access to the individual terraces and allows a view of the ''church'', the ''castle'', and the ''palace''. Behind the palace facade, a huge water collection tank fed the garden's pools and fountains with a system for falling from top to bottom.
Going up from the first levels, visitors can reach the various areas of the garden up to the greenhouse. From here, stairs carved into the rock give access to the upper levels and the ''church'' or, with narrow passages, to the terrace and the tower. Beyond, you reach the top of the hill.
An extraordinary vertical landscape resting on the porphyry of a mediaeval quarry, the Bortolotti Garden is a mysterious place, a sort of ideal city sprung from the rock in an admirable union between artifice and nature.

The Great Green: eco-sustainable initiatives and strategies

Giardino Bortolotti is actively committed to promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. In recent years, it has implemented several initiatives:

◈ Energy Efficiency
• Paving of pathways with local stone (porphyry) or loose gravel
• Garden lighting system with LED lights and computerized on/off control

◈ Enhancement, Expansion, and Restoration of the Plant Heritage
• Completion of the citrus collection, both in pots and in open ground
• Planting of 20 fruit trees of ancient varieties
• Planting of about 2,000 perennial shrub and herbaceous plants and 5,000 bulbs of species available in Italy at the time of the garden's original creation (mid-19th century)

◈ Eco-Friendly Green Management
• Plant disease and pest control using beneficial insects and products approved for organic farming
• Use of maintenance equipment (lawnmowers, brush cutters, hedge trimmers, blowers) powered 75% by batteries
• Weed control and removal carried out exclusively by mechanical or manual methods

◈ Water-Saving Measures
• Remote-controlled irrigation system equipped with a rain sensor

◈ Use of Ecological Materials
• Use of local stone for paving and mulching
• Use of fertilizers and bio-activators derived from plant and natural mineral sources

◈ Conservation and Enhancement of Biodiversity
• Creation of an area at the top of the garden in ecological connection with the native vegetation of the hillside above
• Expansion of the collection of ancient fruit varieties
• Small collections of plants of various types and special species/cultivars (cold-hardy succulents, hydrangeas, euphorbias, citrus, shade-loving plants)
• Periodic removal of invasive plants (tree of heaven)
• Planting of nectar-producing species for bees, butterflies, and pollinators
• Planting of berry-bearing hedges attractive to birds
• Presence of water basins also serving as drinking sources for birds and insects

◈ Environmental Education
• Promotion of the “Art Bonus” initiative for plant adoption/donation
• Organization of various educational workshops for children and families (plant knowledge, botanical drawing, crafts using plant and recycled materials, clay pots)
• Organization of the “Grandi Giardini Italiani Botanical Treasure Hunt”

◈ Good Resolutions for 2026
• Further replacement of maintenance equipment currently powered by fossil fuels
• Installation of furnishing elements made of local stone and certified supply chain wood

Architect

Bortolotti Tommaso

Tommaso Bortolotti was a man of solid technical and scientific culture, as attested by several assignments and consultancies he carried out for the municipality between 1830 and 1853. From the scanty archival records we learn that he lived off the income from his properties; his means, however, proved insufficient in the face of the enormous effort he put into the realization of his garden, a life's work that was probably misunderstood by his fellow villagers, as suggested by his disagreements with his neighbors and his gradual dismissal from public office, in parallel with his repeated trials for insolvency.

In his Il Giardino Bortolotti detto i Ciucioi in Lavis, published in 1927, Luigi Sette relates the tradition that Tommaso Bortolotti died in his garden, during a storm: a narrative with a romantic tone, in keeping with the memory of an eccentric, lonely man overwhelmed by debt. Upon his death, his estates were forfeited to the City of Lavis, which put them up for auction.

Grandi Giardini Italiani Srl

Grandi Giardini Italiani Srl