The Park owes its name to the typical brick benches shaped as “canapé”, a type of sofa with backrest and armrests. The elevation of the land is not natural and is the result of the accumulation of waste materials that the people of Foligno used to abandon in this part of town until 1641, when the City Council prohibited it. The date of construction of the gardens is 1776, which is when the Prefecture of the “Sgravio”, a sort of public works department, ascertained the state of decay of the walls and calculated the cost of restoration at no less than 1000 scudo coins. Since the community of Foligno could not afford the construction work, a group of respectable citizens were called upon to contribute to the restoration of the walls, on the condition that "15 feet of site to form a bench" were reserved for each one of them. This agreement can be considered the deed of the foundation of the park, in which eighty canapé-sofas were made and each was numbered.
