Il Giardino dell’Impossibile: Favignana’s Underground Botanical Garden

On the island of Favignana, Maria Gabriella Campo transformed abandoned quarries into the Giardino dell’Impossibile, a 40,000-square-meter botanical garden with 300 species from around the world, half of which lie below street level. The garden is built within former calcarenite quarries—the same stone used for Palermo’s Teatro Massimo and Messina’s reconstruction after the 1908 earthquake. Campo began the project in the 1970s, facing skepticism from locals who deemed the barren land impossible for cultivation. Today, the garden also preserves the heritage of the pirriaturi, the master stonecutters who extracted blocks (cantuna) measuring 25x25x50 cm for three centuries until the advent of hollow brick. The site includes a labyrinth of tunnels, caves, and open pits where plants like jacaranda, Egyptian papyrus, African euphorbias, and citrus trees intertwine with the rock. The garden is part of Villa Margherita, a holiday complex with houses and apartments. Artribune published the story in September 2018.