Events

As part of the exhibition "La Felicità Possibile" organised by the Diocesan Museum of Pavia and curated by Giosuè Allegrini and Filippo Moretti, we are offering a free guided tour of Horti. Simone Miraldi will take us on a special journey, with the theme of fragility as the central thread.

Sign up at the link and download the flyer.

A journalist, she studies silence as a tool for communication, exploring its cultural, social and philosophical implications and offering interdisciplinary insights. In 2010, she founded the Academy of Silence. She has just published "Silence is Revolution: Listening to the Secret Sound of Life" (Einaudi).

In conversation with journalist Mauro Querci, the author offers a reflection on silence not as an absence but as a fertile space for thought, creativity and awareness. The book weaves together autobiography, neuroscience, philosophy and sociology, and invites us to consider silence as a form of cultural resistance in an age of constant noise and permanent connectivity.

Download the flyer

To mark the 100th anniversary of Alik Cavaliere’s birth, the Horti are paying tribute to the artist by showcasing the sculpture “Il fiore, i fiori, le radici, la terra” as part of the art trail throughout the park. Fania Cavaliere will be present at the opening on 19 April, representing the Alik Cavaliere Art Centre, whom we thank for lending the work on a temporary basis.

Download the programme of the Domenica di Comunità

The Swap Party at the Horti is back for its fifth edition, an event dedicated to the circular economy and sustainability. The event, which has attracted over 400 participants in previous years, involves the exchange of winter clothes, shoes and bags – but that’s not all.

The Sfuso Diffuso project returns in partnership with Karama Collective Solidarity, a Pavia-based organisation that works daily to support and strengthen the collection of humanitarian aid for marginalised people within our society and to assist those travelling along the Balkan Route. In line with a philosophy of permanent reuse, any clothes not exchanged during the event will be used to make blankets, bags and rucksacks to support the communities with which the Karama project interacts on a daily basis. Download the programme of Domenica di Comunità

Create your own bottle-holder with us during the Crochet Workshop in collaboration with Matilde Crea. An introductory lesson to the basics of crochet.

The cost to participate is €12 (you will receive a kit with a crochet hook and yarn to take home). Registration is required. Download the flyer and sign up

The warm season is back, and with it comes "Horti in Primavera".

Three days of celebration to enjoy together with music, poetry and information on autism and inclusion. As part of Horti in Primavera, 19 April also sees the return of 'Community Sunday', with the Farmers' Market, the Swap Party and the inauguration of the work 'Il fiore, i fiori, le radici, la terra' (The Flower, the Flowers, the Roots, the Earth) by artist Alik Cavaliere, in the centenary year of his birth. Courtesy of the Alik Cavaliere Art Centre.

Start marking the date in your calendar! The full programme will follow.

On Saturday 18 April, from 2.30 pm, Horti is hosting an exclusive event for the park’s supporters: “A journey through the hives. The secrets of bees revealed by Michele Contini”, Horti’s beekeeper.

Here, Horti Friends will have the opportunity to take a close look at the park’s beehives, step into the shoes of a beekeeper and be guided on a journey of discovery through the curiosities and secrets of the world of bees. A special opportunity to learn about and protect a species that is fundamental to our ecosystem.

Event reserved for Horti Friend. For info, write to promozione@horti.it

Download the programme of Horti in Primavera

The Horti are promoting 'Il bambino scambiato. Autismo: le possibili verità tra bufale e fake news' (The Changed Child. Autism: the possible truths between hoaxes and fake news), an event dedicated to an open and multidisciplinary discussion on the topic of autism, between scientific information and misinformation. The day, coordinated by Daniela Scotto di Fasano (Società Psicanalitica Italiana), opens with a welcome address by Alberto Lolli, Director of the Horti, and a speech by Simone Miraldi, philosopher and park guide.

During the morning, the topic of autism will be explored from a psychiatric perspective with Pierluigi Politi (University of Pavia, Italian Psychoanalytic Society) and through the direct testimony of the famous Stefano 'Elio' Belisari, offering both a clinical and experiential perspective, followed by a debate with the audience. The afternoon broadens the perspective by addressing the media dimension with Tommaso Piazza (University of Pavia) and the psychoanalytic dimension with Marco Francesconi (University of Pavia, Italian Institute of Group Psychoanalysis), concluding with a final round table discussion.

The event is sold out. Download the flyer

The band made up of inmates from Bollate Prison is coming to Horti Bistrot: on Friday 17 April at 7.00 pm, the group Freedom Sounds will perform for the first time at Horti.

During the Italian rock and pop concert, organised in collaboration with CSV Lombardia, Freedom Sounds will play covers of songs by Vasco Rossi, Zucchero, Ligabue, Rino Gaetano and many other great Italian artists.

Elena Piro, an indie singer-songwriter from Calabria, now lives in Bologna, where she continues to explore her music. On Sunday 19 April at 7.00 pm, she will entertain us with her witty and tender perspective. In a concert featuring just her voice and guitar, she will share her stories of everyday life, filled with awkward romances, sweets split in half and lost bicycles.

Horti Bistrot inaugurates its new format, "Aperilibro". On 11 March at 7:00 pm, Benedetta Centovalli will present her book "Nella stanza di Emily (In Emily's Room)", published by La Tartaruga.

Mauro Querci, journalist, will introduce the text dedicated to the poet Emily Dickinson. This will be followed by readings by Giorgia Lazzeretti, a student at Collegio Borromeo. 

For participants only, aperitif at £10. Download the flyer.

Horti inaugurates the "Cattedra della speranza" within the Horti Extra Art space, a moment where testimony becomes teaching to interpret the present and believe in the possibility of a better world.

The invited voices share the reasons for their hope, which is nourished by looking around, even in a desperate world. They are small, silent and intangible lights that pierce the night and fuel the courage not to give in to resignation. The "Cattedra della speranza" thus becomes a place of encounter and discernment, where personal experience becomes common good and teaching takes shape as an invitation to inhabit the world with new eyes, rooted in reality and oriented towards the future.

The first event will feature artist Adrian Paci in conversation with journalist Mauro Querci. Paci - painter, sculptor, visual artist - will explore the theme 'Art that challenges reality: between memory, migration and representation'.

Horticinum returns to Horti. On Sunday 14 December at 3:30 pm, Simone Miraldi, park guide, will introduce us to four legends from Pavia through the roles of 'storyteller' and 'professor'.

'Lo Sventurato Fasulin', 'La Beffa di Spallanzani', 'Il Cagnolino del Regisole' and 'II Nano del Ponte' will accompany us on a journey of discovery through the city of Pavia and its myths.

Free admission through registration. Followed by biscuits and mulled wine at Horti Bistrot (€5 contribution). Download the flyer.

Horti, in collaboration with Galleria Canesso, until the 12th December is showcasing the exhibition Horti Custos: The Custode dell’Orto within the Extra Art space. 

The work, a very rare case of transposition into stone of the artistic spirit of the Milanese painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593), aims to highlight the profound bond between man and nature; the sculpture is the work of a Lombard artist whose identity is still shrouded in mystery. The temporary exhibition will be in continuous dialogue with the work of British artist David Tremlett, who already enriches the space. 

On Thursday, 16 October, at 6:00 p.m., Horti Extra Art will host Poverty as a Way of Life: 100 Years since the Birth of Father Costantino Ruggeri. The conference will feature Father Pasquale Ghezzi, Don Roberto Tagliaferri, and journalist Alessandro Beltrami, moderated by architect Andrea Vaccari.

At 7:30 p.m., Alberto Lolli, Provost of the Collegio Borromeo and Director of the Horti, together with Luigi Leoni, President of the Frate Sole Foundation, will participate in the inauguration of the work I Trasparenti by Father Costantino Ruggeri.

Download the flyer.

On September 30, 2025, Horti will host a conference dedicated to Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the brilliant 16th-century Milanese painter and master of the famous “composite heads.”

Enrico De Pascale, art historian, Francesco Porzio, art historian, Mauro Pavesi, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Giacomo Berra, art historian, Francesca Bianchi Janetti, art historian, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, RomaTre University, and Filippo Maria Ferro, University of Chieti, will guide us on a journey through still life, comic tradition, links with Caravaggio and Milan at the time, to the symbol of the “Guardian of the Garden.”

The complete programme at the link.

Horti Extra Art is exhibiting the Custode dell'Orto (Guardian of the Garden), a late 16th-century sculpture inspired by the artistic work of Arcimboldo, but of unknown attribution. The Viggiù stone used to create it is the same stone used for the columns of the historic Collegio Borromeo building.

Horti Poetry Slam is back. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, September 25 at 6:00 p.m. at Horti Bistrot!

Eight poets will compete in this event:

Dayan Ravad / Builderbuff / Beatrice / Massimo Muna / Alessandro Pentella / Elena Di Santo / Marzia Staicu / Valeria Benaglia

Presented by Sam Kabauter and Andrea Fabiani. Download the flyer.

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the Horti, the Horti Aperti event, the city's green festival, returns.

The fourth edition will be held from September 19th to 21st and will focus on the theme Avant garden. Cultivating the future. More than 40 exhibitors from all over Italy will be participating. Speakers will include Luca Mercalli, climatologist, Stefano Mancuso, neurobiologist, and Carlos Magdalena, horticulturist at Kew Gardens in London. Discover the complete program and book your ticket at the link.

Every Horti Friend will receive two free tickets to the event. On the day, remember to bring your Horti Card and collect your tickets from the Horti Aperti desk.

A month after the passing of Arnaldo Pomodoro, Tuesday the 22nd July at 9:00 pm Horti dell'Almo Collegio Borromeo and the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation are celebrating the Maestro's art and legacy with an extraordinary evening opening of the artistic park.

The event will be introduced by a greeting from Alberto Lolli, Rector of the Collegio Borromeo and Director of the Horti, and Carlotta Montebello, General Director of the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation. The concert under the stars, curated by Alessandro Marangoni, internationally renowned pianist and Artistic Director of the Collegio Borromeo, will take place close to Pomodoro's artpice Triade. The event, evoking the three columns of the famous opera, will be divided into three moments and will pay tribute to the artist with songs dear to him and some of his interviews.

In addition to the Triad and the Collapse Movement, displayed in the courtyard of the Extra Art space, Pomodoro also left a deep mark on the Horti through the works of his artist friends Gianfranco Pardi, Mauro Staccioli, Luigi Mainolfi, Salvatore Cuschera and Nicola Carrino, on loan from his Foundation's Collection.

Free event. Download the flyer.

Horti in collaboration with Orto Sartoriale organizes for the first time an “upcycling workshop” to give new life to clothes. You can come empty-handed or bring clothes from home. Through mending, sewing and painting, we will help you transform second-hand clothes into a unique garment.

Admission 10€, including workshop materials. For Horti Friend the cost is 8€. For info and registration write to promozione@horti.it by Friday.

Download the programme

A unique experience of art in the making: artist ivan performs a live mural-writing performance.

Words, signs and thoughts take shape before our eyes, in a continuous dialogue between art and audience. A moment to live, to observe, to share. The event is open to all.

Download the programme

On 17 May at 20:00, the Silent Wifi Concert in Horti returns for the second time, a unique and immersive experience to enjoy music and literary pieces, surrounded by greenery.

Attendees of the Silent Wifi Concert can participate for free in the event ‘Waiting for the bistro: solidarity aperitivo’ at 18:00.

After the Louvre, the Egyptian Museum and the Valley of the Temples, pianist Andrea Vizzini returns to Pavia, together with Antonio Gargiulo, reciting voice. Thanks to the silent piano technology, spectators will be able to listen to the music through headphones and at the same time explore the park and its contemporary works of art.

In collaboration with PianoLink, Yamaha e Silent System.