Forestiere Underground Gardens

(en.wikipedia.org)

68 points | by onemoresoop 8 hours ago

9 comments

  • Affric 8 hours ago
    Not sure if it was from the last time this was posted but there’s a decent YouTube video about this place.[1]

    [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUKRPoQKynk

  • rob74 3 hours ago
    One place this reminded me of (which isn't in the "see also" section): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameos_del_Agua on Lanzarote (Canary Islands). Both are underground structures inspired by traditional dwellings and take advantage of the cooling effect of underground structures, but Jameos del Agua is much larger and built inside a natural (partly collapsed) lava tube, not excavated. As a bonus, it has an endemic species of cave crab called jameito. Also something for fans of lavish 1960s architecture.
  • phikappa 2 hours ago
    Interesting case of double-layered false nominative determinism. Although foresta in Italian means "forest" and thus the surname would seem eminently plant-based, it actually means "foreigner", which I guess he also ended up being as Italian immigrant in the US. The etymology of forest and foreigner is closely related and means basically just "(from the) outside".
    • rob74 2 hours ago
      Wow, that's a really sneaky "false friend" in Italian! Especially since it even has the meaning of "forest-related" in other Latinic languages, e.g. in French route forestière = forest road.
      • phikappa 1 hour ago
        I wouldn't call it so much a false friend as forest/foreign (and forfeit and I'm sure a bunch of other words) all coming from the same Latin "foris" root and being semantically related.

        In Italian, outside is just "fuori".

        You're a foreigner to what you've forfeited in the forest.

      • bonzini 2 hours ago
        Forest-related is "forestale" in Italian.
  • psyclobe 4 hours ago
    I went there once yawwwn they make you listen to this hour dissertation... yeah don't take young kids there... snore fest..
  • arjie 4 hours ago
    Are there places in the world where this is still possible? I.e. relatively in a state of order but where enforcement of this kind of thing is poor.
    • defrost 4 hours ago
      Sure, 4 Ha (10 acres) is an inconsequential corner of a 4,500 Ha farm with rural zoning - no one's going to care if you carve out a few underground spaces and rock wall them entirely and only at risk to yourself.

      Community standards kick in once you open such things to the public or move to sale w/out disclosing an invisible (or plainly visible) potential hazard that the buyer should be aware of.

      Well, in rural Australia at least.

  • jeromie 5 hours ago
    My dad took me here a couple times as a kid, it's such a lovely place. Highly recommend checking it out, it's well worth the drive.
  • helterskelter 4 hours ago
    It's beautiful, but I wouldn't want to be down there in a major quake.
  • WalterGR 5 hours ago
    Related: “The underground world of hobby tunneling”

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39245893

    272 points | Feb 3, 2024 | 164 comments

  • aaron695 6 hours ago
    [dead]