Hortus Conclusus
Tucked behind the walls of the former convent of San Domenico, the Hortus Conclusus is one of Italy's most surprising contemporary-art gardens — a place where giant bronze horses, masks, and archaic figures by Mimmo Paladino emerge from the grass like memories surfacing from the earth. Almost nobody outside Campania knows it exists.
Paladino's Enchanted Enclosure
Created in 1992 by Mimmo Paladino — one of the leading figures of Italy's Transavanguardia movement — in collaboration with architects Roberto Serino and Pasquale Palmieri and lighting designer Filippo Cannata, the garden is a permanent installation enclosed by ancient convent walls and a second wall inspired by Benevento's Lombard-era fortifications.
Large bronze sculptures — horses, masks, and archaic figures — are arranged across the garden in dialogue with the sacred space of the former cloister, creating a poetic collision between ancient and contemporary, sacred and profane. A great golden mask presides near the entrance; a bronze horse appears to be rising from the soil.
How to Experience It
The Hortus is a place of genuine meditation: walk slowly, let the silence settle, and notice how Paladino's forms shift meaning depending on the angle of light. Morning visits, when the garden is often empty, are the most atmospheric.
The installation sits in the historic centre, just minutes from the Arch of Trajan and Corso Garibaldi, making it a natural anchor for any walking itinerary through Benevento's old town.
Hortus Conclusus on video
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