Gardens of Augustus
Emilio Mayer · Capri, Italy · 1902
The Villa Krupp Gardens and the nearby Via Krupp form one of Capri’s most memorable landscape-architecture sequences. Commissioned by German industrialist Friedrich Alfred Krupp, the gardens and switchback path use terraces, planting, walls, and carved circulation to negotiate the steep descent toward Marina Piccola. The design turns topographic difficulty into spectacle: the path’s hairpin geometry is both infrastructure and visual icon. Although often visited for the view of the Faraglioni, the site is equally important as an example of engineered landscape. It demonstrates how modern leisure, private patronage, and public tourism reshaped Capri’s cliffs into curated routes, viewpoints, and garden rooms.