As they cross the manicured lawn, where tea tables are set among the fragrant flowering shrubs and shaded by a graceful Norfolk Island Pine, visitors get no hint of what lies below. But once they have descended between the hibiscus hedges to peek through the graceful drooping branches of the weeping willow, they find themselves in a modern incarnation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Set into a narrow terrace on the steep hillside of Tenerife’s northern city of Puerto de la Cruz is a curving lily pond, and a visitor is torn between descending to it immediacy or viewing it first from the high stone bridge that arches over it. Whatever angle it is viewed from, the scene is as well balanced as a painting, and as neatly framed.
Shrubs planted along the far edge are just tall enough to hide the buildings below, but still disclose the mountainside dotted with Oratava‘s white houses. This mountainside creates the backdrop for long views of the garden; once visitors have followed the stone paths to stroll beside the water, the entire outside world seems to disappear. There is no sign of the city that surrounds the gardens.
Risco Bello -- beautiful hillside -- was created 40 years ago by a Belgian for his wife; they were the present owner’s father and mother, and she has just four years ago opened the gardens to the public. The water garden is built in an almost vertical landscape, held in place by walls of rough volcanic stone that forms the island.
Each level of pools and ponds drops to another, each set in flower beds, small wild scapes and trees. These unfold, as the visitor explores , discovering a pathway or set of steps among the 600 plant varieties that surround the pools.
The water moves, overflowing into and out of terra cotta jugs set at angles in the wall to form fountains and create waterfalls. Round stepping stones lead across the lily pond and give access to the tiny island with its miniature cottage. Edible fruits, including a grape arbor thrive above one side of the largest pond.
At the very bottom terrace, a red bridge arches over a pond lined with beach-worn stones, not a Japanese garden exactly, but clearly inspired by them. In a shady nook is a bench from which to admire the scene before climbing the stone steps back to the top.
The garden’s designer had the eye of an artist, creating living frames of foliage or stone for each vantage point.
Puerto de la Cruz is a town filled with gardens, from its outstanding botanic garden to the newest one recreating those that once surrounded a noble mansion near the shore. But none is quite so surprising, quite so harmonious or quite so artistically designed as this one.
After wandering through it, most visitors remain to savor the experience a bit longer, over tea and cakes at the little tables scattered among the fragrant blooms on the lawn at the top.
Risco Bello Aquatic Gardens is at Carretera Taoro 15, right next to the Hotel Taoro, where Agatha Christie wrote on of her mysteries. It is open from 9.30 am to 6 pm daily.
