The roof garden of the Palazzo Rosso (a historic property listed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage) is already documented in the deed of purchase of the Historic Residence (1494) which describes the palace of San Martino alla Pietra as composed of “four attics and a garden of citrus fruit with a partly covered and partly uncovered tower behind the said building and four shops”.
A place where the enjoyment of nature, colors and scents connoted both a cultural aspect, documented since the 16th century as the site of city academies, and a social aspect, as the garden of the Caffè dell’Ussero (historical place in Italy, founded on 1 September 1775) and of the Nettuno Hotel from the end of the 19th century. The idea of the recovery plan was a central green space, which is delimited by the medieval walls of the former Hotel Nettuno and by citrus and aromatic hedges and climbing plants. This mixed structure between architecture and greenery gives the garden the traditional appearance of a hortus conclusus.
Green is the dominant color: shrubs, citrus fruits, ancient roses, jasmine, aromatic herbs, herbaceous perennials, annuals and bulbous plants arranged in apparent disorder but in reality in harmony of volumes, light and colours, form the vegetal structures of the garden and renew the interest of the garden during all the year.
The homogeneous central space is enriched along the perimeter with small hedges of citrus fruits and aromatic plants, low box hedges behind which the lavender ears emerge, and behind them the abundant blooms of ancient rose bushes and rosemary hedges, typical Mediterranean. Thin iron structures with flowering curtains of jasmine and ivy connect the garden to the terrace below.
A medlar tree, a popular plant in historic gardens, placed in a corner of the garden visible from the alley below, signals the visual and functional relationship, which blends together the open spaces, which are most closely dependent on the palace, with the surrounding ones of the built city.
A space that enhances the spontaneous aspects, which carefully conceal human intervention, but also a qualified intervention to raise awareness among public opinion and city civil society, administrators and designers on the environmental benefits of green roofs, which today represent a concrete, effective and convenient air and electromagnetic pollution control system, saving energy and increasing the quality of life.
