Deep inside the heart of the spectacular Island of Ischia we find “La Mortella” Garden, one of the most beautiful private gardens in Europe. The name “Mortella” indicates myrtle, in Neapolitan dialect, the "divine myrtle" (Myrtus communis), a plant that grows with great abundance among the rocks of the hill on which lies the garden who held considerable importance in the greek-roman mythology, sometimes representing beauty or virginity, sometimes love or fortune pagan.
The story of this enchanting place is related to the fabulous love story of its founders: Sir William and Susana Walton. Sir William Walton, is today considered one of the greatest English composers of the twentieth century, some of his best-known work are “Façade” and the wonderful soundtrack for Henry V with Laurence Olivier, the three concertos for viola, violin and cello, the monumental choral Belshazzar's Feast, the two symphonies, opera Troilus and Cressida, a comic opera, The Bear. He has written two gears for the coronation: Imperial Crown for the King George VI and Orb and Sceptre for Queen Elizabeth, as well as a Te Deum. His wife Susana on the other hand, was daughter of a wealthy argentine family but, as independent and determined as she were, she decided to work, forcing her family to accept this decision. She was working for the British Consulate in Buenos Aires when she first met William Walton, the forty-six years old composer, who went to Buenos Aires for an international conference of the Performing Right Society.
Susana organized the press conference for the composer, who noticed this young, attractive and vivacious brunette from the big green eyes, in a crowd of reporters, suddenly deciding that she was the woman he wanted to marry. The same evening, Susana was asked by William to marry him, becoming engaged in a matter of two weeks, causing concern in her family and among each other colleagues who did not believe in this love at first sight. Regardless of the comments of others, they married two months later and left for Europe, to be more precise in Italy (Ischia / Forio). In this wonderful curative island, after two years spent in rented house, the couple decided to buy a gorge of volcanic origin to build there their own house. Being that place big, wild, and bristling with rocks, they needed the help of a famous landscape architect: Russell Page, who was also a great admirer of the music of Walton, to draw a house and what would have been later the most gorgeous garden of all Europe.
The house, built on the side of a volcanic hill, includes a Recital Hall and an Archive. Created in 1990, the archive includes letters, photographs, manuscripts and memorabilia of Sir William. The archive provides a great resource for both scholars and enthusiasts; a fraction of the material is currently on permanent display in the museum. The collection is continuously updated whenever additional material comes to light. Just like “La Mortella” itself, which evolved from a barren rock quarry to a rich tropical garden, the archive has been a labor of love supported by a careful long-term planning. “La Mortella” (the garden) is divided into two different parts: The Valley, designed by Russell Page, characterized by a subtropical climate, moist and protected from the wind, and the Hill or the upper garden, entirely designed and developed by Lady Walton, with sunny and windy areas and characterized by a Mediterranean areas vegetation. It covers a wide area of about 2 hectares and, houses a collection of more than 3000 species of exotic and rare plants. The whole garden is designed with skill and is embellished with fountains, swimming pools, watercourses that allow the cultivation of a superb collection of aquatic plants such as papyrus, lotus flowers and tropical water lilies.
The Greenhouse, which houses this marvellous giant water lily, is also famous because of its structure, it is in fact dominated by a giant “Mouth”; sculptured by Simon Verity it reproduces a mask designed by John Piper on the curtain of “Façade”. The upper garden, or Hill, entirely designed and developed by Lady Walton in 1983 (year of the death of her husband), is, compared to the “Valley” garden which is more intimate, wet and lush, more open to the outside world, full of views, sun, covered in Mediterranean vegetation. The Mediterranean garden merges and integrates seamlessly with the landscape of the island that embraces it. The Hill is dotted with amazing architectural elements, often intertwined with symbolic meanings and references to the history and archaeology like: Sala Thai, surrounded by lotus flowers, bamboo and Japanese maples, the Sun Temple, decorated with bas-reliefs by Simon Verity, the Waterfall of the Crocodile, the Nymphaeum and the Greek theatre, which hosts musical summer concerts. On the brow of the hill, in a position that dominates not only the garden but also the whole bay of Forio, is located the Rock of William, which treasures the ashes of the great musician who was William Walton. It is a natural pyramid of trachyte boulder, once a block border, which William himself declared to be "his stone" on the day of the purchasing of the property. But Susana too has her own memorial, and it is not far away from her husband one, it is called the Nymphaeum and we found: “This green arbour is dedicated to Susana, who loved tenderly, worked with passion and believed in immortality" written on it.
Lady Walton, to offer her husband a refuge in which to work in peace and isolation, created this enchanting garden in 50 years with an artistic sense, love and determination. While William composed, Susana created a masterpiece, unique, made of flowers and plants, planting tirelessly, giving shape and structure to a rough and unpromising terrain, propagating and irrigating, and believing in the power of dreams as he created a garden that now home to thousands of rare and exotic plants. To Susana Walton, “La Mortella” is the mission of a lifetime, a monument to the life and works of William, and a poignant reminder of the great, but sometimes painful love they have experienced. It is said in fact that William did not want any children so he informed her about that and, when she became pregnant, he insisted that she have an abortion. This is probably the reason why, to tell as Humphrey Burton do: “Deprived of children of her own – the account of her abortion in her memoirs makes gruesome reading – she poured an almost maternal love into her garden, carved out of the Ischia rock face.”
The property, which in the early '50s was a sunny and barren land dotted with volcanic stones, today is a garden in several levels, ranging from a typical sub-tropical in the valley, with its own microclimate moist and shady, the areas most exposed to the sun on top of the hill. Since both Susana and William are dead, this wonderful property is today managed by the: “William Walton Foundation” along with the “William Walton Trust”, of which Prince Charles of Wales is Honorary President. The overriding purpose of the foundation is to make “La Mortella” a study center for talented young musicians under the direction of the most important masters of the world and open to the public the garden with the Recital Hall / Museum. For these reasons, every year they offers scholarships for composers in collaboration with Harvard University and organizes season of concerts with music schools in Naples, Rome and Florence.
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