Bomarzo

Deep in the Lazio region of west-central Italy lies a secret MYTHOLOGICAL PARK dating from the renaissance. The 16th-century stone monsters of BOMARZO resisted nature’s encroachment and were spared the trampling attention of tour guides. They captured the attention of Surrealist artists like Jean cocteau, Salvador Dalí, and andré pieyre de mandiargues, who were impressed by this unique masterpiece of fantasy and melancholy. photography by GIANNI OPRANDI  text by PATRICK MAURIÈS   During an interview Jorge Luis Borges spoke of his surprise when first writing The Book of Imaginary Beings and paging through a compendium of imaginary animals that seemed fundamentally repetitive and limited. He thought he would be seeing the most Baroque examples of limitless fantasy, but instead saw only a limited circle of extremely similar creatures, common to even the farthest areas of the world. Dragons, mermaids, centaurs, harpies, minotaurs, men with elephant heads — fantasy fauna always seems…