A Place to Be: Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden

A Place to Be is Sudden Chic’s recurring travel column about niche locations we love: from a hidden shop to a small town and beyond.

Niki de Saint Phalle is undoubtedly one of the most prolific artists ever. And if you’re lucky enough to visit her Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy, in the little village of Capalbio, you might be be able to witness one of the most special outdoor art installations of all time.

Originally opening to the public in 1998, Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden encapsulates the magic of the artist’s sculptural work. The pastel colors, the shapely rounded features and the glass mosaics are true Niki de Saint Phalle — this is a sculpture garden that couldn’t belong to anyone else. The garden itself is based on the tarot deck.

Addmitedly, the only other place like it in the world is Antoni Gaudí’s Parc Güell in Barcelona, which Niki de Saint Phalle has said she was inspired by.

Once inside the park, there are 22 massive figures representing her ideas of the Mysteries of the Tarot, entirely made out of ceramic mosaic material. Going to the park is an otherworldly experience, as you can walk through some of the sculptures to truly experience them in a different light.

Niki de Saint Phalle herself even lived inside the Empress sculpture, while the park was being constructed, over the course of several years (her bedroom was inside one breast! Her kitchen in the other!) It feels like you can get lost in the 14-acre garden, which the artist said she intended to be “a sort of joyland” and a demonstration that “a woman can work on a monumental scale.”