Giardino Giusti Historical Timeline

Origins

The Giusti were a Tuscan family who settled in Verona and made money in wool dyeing. The site had been used for their workshops before it became a garden.

Turning points

Agostino Giusti laid out the garden from the 1570s, in the late-Renaissance manner: geometry and control on the flat, giving way to wilder ground as it climbs.

Influential people

It became a required stop on the Grand Tour. Goethe visited in 1786 and wrote about it in his Italian Journey; Mozart came as a boy, and Cosimo de' Medici before them.

Cultural evolution

The maze was redesigned in 1786 by the architect Luigi Trezza, and is among the older surviving garden mazes in Europe.

Present-day significance

The garden is still owned by the Giusti, which is unusual after four and a half centuries. A violent storm in 2020 brought down a number of the old cypresses, and the replanting and restoration that followed is visible.