Inaugurated in 1879, the park was designed by the Count of Piedmont Bertone di Sambuy, who had already created the Valentino Park in Torino. Its plan recalls the English style, fashionable at the time, displaying alternation between woods and open spaces, avenues for hackney-coaches, footpaths, and a small lake flanked by a channel. The park was named “Passeggio Regina Margherita” (“Queen Margaret's Walk”) after the wife of King Umberto I and became a meeting point for the citizens as well as a seat for important events. A small wooden chalet (destroyed by a fire in 1893 and rebuilt in masonry at the beginning of the 20th century), a space for meetings and Café-chantant shows, was placed in the park, while in 1915 works for the construction of an outdoor school were started. A tennis club, halls used as meeting points or to set up exhibits, and a Library for kids were added in the course of time. In 1945, the equestrian statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, initially in Piazza Maggiore, was moved in the park. Rich of conifer trees and exotic plants, the Giardini Margherita are a real “flower museum” as well as a small archaeological park: in fact, since 1875, when works began, several tombs, vases, and archaeological items of the Etruscans of the Po Valley have been recovered.
Giardini Margherita
40136 Bologna
