Visit Edward James’ Surrealist Gardens

Close to the little central Mexican town of Xilitla is Las Pozas, an extraordinary sculpture park created by eccentric artist Edward James.  This colourful English aristocrat arrived here in 1945 and was immediately besotted by the exotic plants and birds of the surrounding rainforest.

Thus inspired, he began crafting a labyrinthine exhibition of surreal concrete and brick buildings, tunnels, bridges, pavilions, sculptures and spiral stairways leading nowhere, enveloped by lush green foliage. Some of his creations reflect classical style with Greco-Roman columns, some have loopy designs resembling candelabras, while others are inspired by the surrounding vegetation and fauna itself. Absorbed by the greedy forest, bits of wrought iron are rusty; other sculptures are mantled in moss. Salvador Dali reputedly said of him 'Edward James is crazier than all the surrealists put together. They pretend, but he is the real thing.'