The Ninfa Gardens, today part of Cisterna di Latina, is an English garden, with a small Italian-style hortus conclusus (enclosed garden), that extends out through the abandoned ruins of the medieval town of Ninfa where the river Ninfa runs through. Previously owned by the Frangipane and Colonna families, it was bought by Pietro Caetani in 1298 and has remained in the family’s hands – with the exception of the years of the pontificate of Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) – who began to refurbish and restore it in the 1920s. Today it is owned by the Roffredo Caetani di Sermoneta Foundation.
The town and its river owe their name to the small temple dedicated to the Nymphs, divinities of the woods and waters, near the waters that gushed from the Monti Lepini range in Roman times.
To safeguard the flora and fauna of the entire area, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) nature area was first established in 1976 around the garden, which conserves thousands of plants including exotic varieties such as an Eastern walnut, a red leafed Japanese acer, a red beech and Chinese bamboo.
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