Villa Falconieri is a villa in
FrascatiFrascati is a town and commune in the province of Rome in the Latium region of central Italy. It is located 20 km south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is the location of some international scientific laboratories, a science town.Frascati is...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
.
The villa was originally called
Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Rufini. Later it was enlarged thanks to Pope Paul III, dates back to 1546. In 1628 Orazio Falconieri purchased the villa and commissioned
Francesco BorrominiFrancesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was a Swiss Italian architect who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...
its renovation.
Important architects worked on the design such as
Antonio da Sangallo the Youngerthumb|250px|The church of Santa Maria di Loreto near the [[Trajan's Market]] in [[Rome]], considered Sangallo's masterwork.thumb|250px|View of St. Patrick's Well in [[Orvieto]]....
and Borromini.
Villa Falconieri is a villa in
FrascatiFrascati is a town and commune in the province of Rome in the Latium region of central Italy. It is located 20 km south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is the location of some international scientific laboratories, a science town.Frascati is...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
.
The villa was originally called
Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Rufini. Later it was enlarged thanks to Pope Paul III, dates back to 1546. In 1628 Orazio Falconieri purchased the villa and commissioned
Francesco BorrominiFrancesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was a Swiss Italian architect who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...
its renovation.
Important architects worked on the design such as
Antonio da Sangallo the Youngerthumb|250px|The church of Santa Maria di Loreto near the [[Trajan's Market]] in [[Rome]], considered Sangallo's masterwork.thumb|250px|View of St. Patrick's Well in [[Orvieto]]....
and Borromini. The interior houses frescoes by
Pier Leone GhezziPier Leone Ghezzi was an Italian Rococo painter and caricaturist active in Rome.Ghezzi was born in Comunanza, in what is now the Marche....
,
Giacinto CalandrucciGiacinto Calandrucci was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.Originally from Palermo, he moved to Rome with the fellow Palermitaan painter and engraver Pietro del Pò. Like many painters in Rome in his day, then entered the large and prolific studio of Carlo Maratta...
,
Ciro FerriCiro Ferri was an Italian Baroque sculptor and painter, the chief pupil and successor of Pietro da Cortona.He was born in Rome, where he began working under Cortona and with a team of artists in the extensive fresco decorations of the Quirinal Palace...
,
Niccolò BerrettoniNiccolò Berrettoni was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He trained with Simone Cantarini then worked with Carlo Maratta. Among his paintings in Rome was a Madonna with St...
, and others. The park is a splendid Italian gardens enlarged in the 17th century, with small lake bordered by cypresses created in the 18th century.
Later, on May 1907, the Villa was bought by the German baron Ernest Mendelsshon-Bartholdy of Berlin, who gave it as a gift to Kaiser Wilhelm II. On April 6th, 1911 the Crown Prince William and Princess Cecilie visited the villa and decided on some restorations. Here the German writer Richard Voss lived (25 years) and wrote several novels as
Villa Falconieri,
Roman Fever,
The Son of Volsca and others; he called the Villa as
"my shining house". For these reasons Villa Falconieri was always dear to German community of Rome.
At the end of the First World War, the Villa was confiscated by Italian State.
Villa Falconieri was damaged by the bombing (1943-1944) but masterly work restored the ancient splendor. Now Villa Falconieri seat of the European Centre for the Education (CEDE) and INVALSI.