Villa Borghese is a large landscape
gardenA garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form is known as a residential garden. Western gardens are almost universally...
in the naturalistic English manner in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, containing a number of buildings, museums (see
Galleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
) and attractions. It is the second largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 148 acres) after that of the
Villa Doria PamphiliThe Villa Doria Pamphili is a seventeenth century villa with what is today the largest landscaped public park in Rome and enjoyed as a place of leisure by the inhabitants of Rome...
. The gardens were developed for the
Villa Borghese PincianaThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
("Borghese villa on the
Pincian HillThe Pincian Hill is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius...
"), built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by
Scipione BorgheseCardinal Scipione Borghese was an Italian Renaissance prelate, art collector and member of the noble Borghese family.-Birth and elevation:...
, who used it as a
villa suburbana, a party villa, at the edge of Rome, and to house his art collection.
Villa Borghese is a large landscape
gardenA garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form is known as a residential garden. Western gardens are almost universally...
in the naturalistic English manner in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, containing a number of buildings, museums (see
Galleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
) and attractions. It is the second largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 148 acres) after that of the
Villa Doria PamphiliThe Villa Doria Pamphili is a seventeenth century villa with what is today the largest landscaped public park in Rome and enjoyed as a place of leisure by the inhabitants of Rome...
. The gardens were developed for the
Villa Borghese PincianaThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
("Borghese villa on the
Pincian HillThe Pincian Hill is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius...
"), built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by
Scipione BorgheseCardinal Scipione Borghese was an Italian Renaissance prelate, art collector and member of the noble Borghese family.-Birth and elevation:...
, who used it as a
villa suburbana, a party villa, at the edge of Rome, and to house his art collection. The gardens as they are now were remade in the early nineteenth century.
History
In 1605, Cardinal
Scipione BorgheseCardinal Scipione Borghese was an Italian Renaissance prelate, art collector and member of the noble Borghese family.-Birth and elevation:...
, nephew of
Pope Paul VPope Paul V , born Camillo Borghese, was Pope from 16 May, 1605 until his death.-Early life:...
and patron of Bernini, began turning this former vineyard into the most extensive gardens built in Rome since Antiquity. The vineyard's site is identified with the
gardens of LucullusThe Gardens of Lucullus were an ancient patrician villa on the Pincian Hill on the edge of Rome; they were laid out by Lucius Licinius Lucullus about 60 BCE...
, the most famous in the late Roman republic. In the 19th century much of the garden's former formality was remade as a landscape garden in the English taste (
illustration, right). The Villa Borghese gardens were long informally open, but were bought by the commune of Rome and given to the public in 1903. The large landscape park in the English taste contains several villas. The
Spanish StepsThe Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinità dei Monti...
lead up to this park, and there is another entrance at the Porte del Popolo by
Piazza del PopoloThe Piazza del Popolo is a large square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "piazza of the people", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.The Piazza lies inside the...
. The
Pincio (the
Pincian HillThe Pincian Hill is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius...
of ancient Rome), in the south part of the park, offers one of the greatest views over Rome.
A balustrade (dating from the early seventeenth century) from the gardens, was taken to England in the late 19th century, and installed in the grounds of
ClivedenCliveden is an Italianate stately-home at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on cliffs 200 feet above the River Thames, it has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor. It is now owned by the National Trust and the house is leased as a five-star hotel run by von...
House, a mansion in
BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury and the largest town in ceremonial Buckinghamshire is Milton Keynes....
, in 1896. In 2004, a species of Italian snail was discovered, still living on the balustrade after more than 100 years in England.
Villas in the gardens
- Today the Galleria Borghese
The Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
is housed in the Villa Borghese itself. The garden Casino Borghese, built on a rise above the Villa by the architect Giovanni VasanzioGiovanni Vasanzio or Jan van Santen was a Dutch-born architect, garden designer and engraver who spent his mature career in Rome, where he arrived in the 1580s...
, was set up by Camillo Borghese to contain sculptures by Bernini from the Borghese collectionThe Borghese Collection is a collection of Roman sculptures, old masters and modern art collected by the Roman Borghese family, especially Cardinal Scipione Borghese, from the 17th century on. It includes major collections of Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian, and of ancient Roman art...
, including his David and his Daphne, and by Antonio CanovaAntonio Canova was an Italian sculptor who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...
(Paolina Borghese), with paintings by Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno , in the Republic of Venice...
, RaphaelRaffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings...
and CaravaggioMichelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610...
.
- The Villa Giulia
This page describes the building. For the museum itself see National Etruscan Museum.The Villa Giulia is a villa in Rome, Italy. It was built by Pope Julius III in 1550–1555 on what was then the edge of the city...
adjoining the Villa Borghese gardens was built in 1551 - 1555 as a summer residence for Pope Julius IIIPope Julius III , born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was Pope from 7 February 1550 to 1555....
; now it contains the Etruscan Museum (Museo Etrusco).
- The Villa Medici
The Villa Medici is an architectural complex centred on the villa whose gardens are contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, has housed the French Academy in Rome...
houses the French Academy in RomeThe French Academy in Rome is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio in Rome, Italy.-History:...
, and the Fortezzuola a Gothic garden structure that houses a collection memorializing the academic modern sculptor Pietro Canonica. In the 1650s, Diego VelázquezDiego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
painted several depictions of this Villa's garden casino festively illuminated at night. Before electricity, such torchlit illuminations carried an excitement hard to conceive today.
- Other villas scattered through the Villa Borghese gardens are remains of a world exposition
International Exhibition of Art was a world's fair held in Rome in 1911 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy. It marked the beginnings of the National Roman Museum...
in Rome in 1911.
- The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, or the National Gallery of Modern Art , is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, dedicated to modern art....
located in its grounds has a collection of 19th and 20th century paintings emphasizing Italian artists.
- Architecturally the most notable of the 1911 exposition pavilions is the English pavilion designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA, LLD was a leading 20th century British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
(who later designed New DelhiNew Delhi is the capital of India. It is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and serves as the seat of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi....
), now housing the British School at RomeThe British School at Rome was established in 1901 and granted a Royal Charter in 1912 as an educational institute culminating the study of awarded British scholars in the fields of archaeology, literature, music, and history of Rome and Italy of every period, and for the study of the fine arts and...
.
Other points of interest
- The villa's gardens feature in one of Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral Roman trilogy: Fontane di Roma - "Fountains of Rome"; Pini di Roma - "Pines of Rome"; and Feste Romane - "Roman Festivals"...
's Pini di RomaPini di Roma is a 1924 work by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, and is considered one of the masterpieces of the Roman Trilogy of symphonic poems along with Feste Romane and Fontane di Roma...
.
- Beside the 1911 Exposition's villas, there is the Exposition's Zoo, recently rearranged, with minimal caging, as the Bioparco
Bioparco SpA is the zoological garden of Rome, Italy. There are 1114 animals of 222 species maintained.-History:...
, and the Zoological MuseumThe Museo Civico di Zoologia is a natural historymuseum in Rome, central Italy. It is situated next to the Bioparc and can be entered by the Zoo or through the entrance on via Ulisse Aldrovandi...
(Museo di Zoologia).
External links