Baldasare Forestiere
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Baldasare Forestiere (1879 – 1946) created the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, California, a spectacular ten-acre subterranean villa built solely by him over a period of 40 years. The gardens feature nearly one hundred chambers, passageways, courts and patios dug beneath the hard pan soil. Fruit-bearing trees planted below the ground protrude through openings at ground level. Forestiere resided here, benefiting from cooler temperatures during the high heat of the California Central Valley in summer as well as warmer conditions within the ground during winter. The gardens are an impressive example of non-traditional vernacular architecture. Forestiere's creation and story offer parallels to Simon Rodia and the Watts Towers, both Italian immigrants born in the same year (1879), who settled in California and crafted one-of-a-kind residences by hand and in seclusion. For a fictionalized account of Forestiere and his obsession, see the short story "The Underground Gardens" by T. Coraghessan Boyle, published in The New Yorker, (May 25, 1998).
