The Children's Garden
Playing at the Castle
While in Paris, in the 1850’s, through her cousin Napoleon III, Julie Bonaparte made friends with the impressionist painter Camille Corot, who also came to see her at her home in rue de Grenelle, as we see in the Visitors Book.
Corot had already been to Tivoli in the 1830’s, before Julie and Alessandro’s presence at Mandela. He had been to visit the countryside around Horace’s villa. He drew a famous etching called "Les Jardins d’Horace" (Gardens of Horace) of the area, but it does not particularly look like today’s archaeological excavations.
When Julie and Alessandro planted the Romantic wood, they planted another little wood beside it, just below the huge stone walls under the Belvedere, where probably the children could have been kept under observation.
Inspired by Corot’s drawing, they planted an area arched by a corridor of bay trees for the children to play.