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The Stone Garden in Rocca Canterano: Leonetta Marcotulli's Sculptures in the Village Lanes
Climbing the stairs up and down Rocca Canterano, a village in the Ruffi Mountains 770 metres above sea level, travertine sculptures suddenly appear among the houses as if they had grown there. This is the Stone Garden, an open-air museum inaugurated in 2022 with works by Leonetta Marcotulli (Rome 1929-2025), a sculptor who lived between Trastevere in Rome and this village for decades. The sculptures were donated by the artist to the community.
The Artist and Her "Solid Women"
Marcotulli led an extraordinary life. Born in Rome, she lived in Libya and Venezuela, obtained her glider pilot's licence in Rieti, raced cars in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint when women did not yet have driving licences. Sculpture came during the years of the Roman School of Piazza del Popolo, when she fraternised with Schifano, Tano Festa, Franco Angeli. Her subjects are soft, rounded female figures — "my women aren't fat, they're solid" she would say — as well as abstract structures and cats. The models were first created in clay, then reproduced in marble and travertine.
The Route Through the Village
The Garden starts from the old slaughterhouse, restored and transformed into an exhibition space, and climbs towards the centre through narrow lanes and small squares. The sculptures alternate with views of the mountainous landscape. The route reaches Piazza del Forno, where the village women once brought bread to be baked. Rocca Canterano has just over 300 inhabitants, and in 2019 conferred honorary citizenship on Marcotulli.
