Public Gardens

During the first half of the XIX century La Spezia started to physically break down the medieval walls still encircling it, casting out its territorial ambitions in the direction of the sea shore. As from 1825, due to the increasing whirl of social life, the city endowed itself with small public gardens located where the bandstand now stands and the original name given to the gardens, Boschetto, tells us about the landscape style, then so much in vogue, used to plan and design them. The original public gardens had already grown within the space of a decade by taking over the lawn in front of what is now palazzo Doria in via Chiodo, but it was after the construction site opened to build the Naval Arsenal that infinitely more space was given over to public parks and gardens: the enormous mountains of earth taken from excavating for the docks will in fact be banked into the sea increasing the distance between city and shore at the same time giving new wings for that botanical style which had already gained such successful results. With Paita as the city mayor, the space used up during the last decade of the XIX century coincides almost perfectly with what you can see today, but the public parks and gardens will only take on the appearance as we know them today between the 10’s and 20’s of the XX century. It is in fact owing to Felice Del Santo’s artistic sense that the city will plant bitter orange trees to embellish promenades and the shady Parco della Rimembranza, a commemoration park in the Gaggiola district, obviously as well as to the working design of the public gardens. Even though the gardens of the town houses built after via XX Settembre and via XXVII Marzo were opened were not very large they contributed towards completing the horticultural layout in the central part of the city as well as behind it.
The mansions located outside the city, built on fortified settlements dating back to the lower medieval, had already extensively marked the region with well laid out parks and gardens. Adapting themselves to the landscape styles which had in turn influenced the layout of the great estates, the mansions are admirable monuments in the scenery of the Gulf. Even though the landscape around the Gulf and on the hills facing onto it is not equal to the landscape of mansions for example around Lucca or even nearer to home in the endangered district of Sarzana, it is in fact similar. From the west on Palmaria Island with its 18th century mansion once belonging to the Marquises Pieri Neri from Siena up until near to the city with villa Federici di Fabiano, there are a series of villas, more numerous towards the eastern coast, where a better climate encourages this phenomenon. In Lerici, natural outlet for Sarzana going past Romito, the Marigola, Cochrane, now Miniati and de Benedetti, now Picedi Benettini estates are perfect examples of the changing sentiments linking man with repossessed nature.
The Allende Centre used for exhibitions and cultural events is located in the public gardens between via Diaz, Italia, Da Passano and Mazzini roads, with its entrance from the latter.