Comune di Battaglia Terme

Cartello n. 2 Tasso ENGLISH

Hello! Nice to meet you, I am Tasso, although in reality my real name is "taxus baccata". I am an evergreen ornamental plant, I live many years and belong to the conifer family. My trunk is very wrinkled to the touch, my leaves are needle-like, very similar to those of the fir; and my color is green, bright and intense. My fruits are small, fleshy red berries that contain a dark-colored seed. I've been living in this park for about 200 years now, you know? When they planted me here, there was a beautiful Hotel behind me, called the Grande Hotel delle Terme.
 
I'll tell you a little curiosity: think, I'm also known as TREE OF DEATH !! This is because I am very toxic: I contain a poison called TASSINA, capable of inducing sudden death due to cardiac or respiratory paralysis. But don't panic, I'm also a useful tree though: my poison, if properly used in chemotherapy, can cure some cancers.
 
Now I'll tell you something about the Grande Hotel Terme, that you can see it in this vintage photo: it was built by the Emo Capodilista family towards the end of the 1700s; the park was perfectly maintained, it had an Italian garden made of geometric hedges and fountains with thermal water.
 
The property also included the plant named S. Elena, the radioactive sweat grotto, the farm building, the avenues, the springs, the pools and the right to exploit the thermal lakes. It even had 120 beds for guests who came to take spa treatments.
Today, only a few columns of the external portico and the basin of a fountain remain of that hotel. In fact, in 1927 the entire property was purchased by the INFPS (National Fascist Social Security Institute), which decided to demolish everything to build the establishment that you can see at the bottom of the Viale delle Magnolie.