Ferrari garden or garden park in Štanjel has a special meaning for Slovenia, because of its cultural, art architectural and other outstanding properties. It is located below the village wall, designed by architect Max Fabiani in the time of his mayoralty. The estate was owned by Trieste doctor Enrico Ferrari, who wanted to build a rural villa and sanatorium for lung patients in Štanjel. It is a terraced design incorporating a system of underground canals and reservoirs to supply park with water for watering and decoration with a fountain and a water mirror. He added cave, an island in the middle of the pool with the Venetian bridge, which is the most recognizable part of the garden, and viewpoint with shade. Avenues and fruit trees were carefully planted, he arranged round paths, which are winding around settlement Štanjel.

The park was gradually developing, somewhere between years 1925 and 1935, on a desolate and steep terrain below the villa Ferrari. When designing the garden, Fabiani used traditional, for karstic landscape typical procedures – terrace, stone supporting columns, stairs, pergolas -, as well as the elements, which have nothing to do with Karst but reflect the ideals of that time. The selection of material, which he used, was for this time very innovative, as the majority of the park was built from concrete, which only came into use in time after the First World War.

Fabiani designed the water supply system in Štanjel, upgrading the traditional way of collecting rainwater with a system of soil collecting canals, tanks, pipelines, drainage or irrigation channels and connected them to a complex system. This system was already supplying villa with running water, not only for basic needs but also for entertainment and decoration. The pool with a fountain was mostly used for water accumulation, with which they irrigated the garden and fields in sinkhole below the park. In winter, when water in the pool froze, the ice on its surface was broken and accumulated through the opening in ice storage.

The owner of the garden, Enrico Ferrari, enjoyed the work they did with Fabiani only for a short time, as further plans, he had with this place, where he wanted to open small sanatarium, were demolished by the war. After the war, the park becomes a public space.

The garden was in the year 1999 proclaimed for the cultural monument of national importance with the properties of the cultural landscape, nature design monument, technical monument, art architecture monument and historical monument. The garden is one of the rarest complexes in Slovenia and the only bigger park complex from the first half of the 20th century.

See other gardens around Slovenia!

Villa Ferrari
Villa Ferrari is a joint name for a set of houses in the eastern part of Štanjel, arranged by Fabiani for his brother-in-law Enrico Ferrari. Since the year 1920, Enrico Ferrari bought most of the houses in the complex between the tower of Štanjel wall and few more houses in another complex. [_Read more_]

Fabiani path
Fabiani path runs between Štanjel and Kobdilj, it unites several shorter walking trails, leading to favorite works of architectural creations of Max Fabiani. Max Fabiani is a known architect, who in Štanjel worked during the First and Second World War. Fabiani path starts below the old part of Štanjel. [_Read more_]

Štanjel
Štanjel is located on the northeastern edge of Karst plateau, it is combined by old part or Gornja vas, which is located on the slope of Turn and newer part or Dolnja vas. It is one of the oldest settlements on Karst, it was written for its old city center. It got its name after the patron of the church, St. Danijel. [_Read more_]