Villa Borghese gardens

Did You Know?

• The gardens feature in Ottorino Respighi's tone poem 'Pines of Rome'.
• They are the setting of chapters 8–11 of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel 'The Marble Faun'.
• The gardens appear in the 'Rome Avanti' course in Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

History

Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V and patron of Bernini, began converting a former vineyard into extensive gardens in 1605. The site is identified with the gardens of Lucullus from the late Roman republic. Domenico Savino da Montepulciano laid out the gardens. The Borghese Balustrade, crafted in 1618 by G di Gincome and P. Massoni for the Casino Nobile's south forecourt, originally featured two stone statues atop central openings and fountains with shell-shaped basins; the statues were added in 1715 by Claude-Augustin Cayot.

In 1896, William Waldorf Astor purchased the balustrade and installed it at his English estate Cliveden, where it is a Grade II Listed Building. A colony of Papillifera bidens snails, new to English fauna, was discovered living on the balustrade in 2004, presumably imported with it in the late 19th century. In the 18th century, Marcantonio Borghese transformed the formal gardens into an English landscape garden. Architect Antonio Asprucci and his son Mario worked on the landscaping from 1782 for over twenty years, placing statues and building the Garden of the Lake and Piazza di Siena.

The Temple of Aesculapius in Ionic style was built in the lake's center between 1785 and 1792. The Sea Horse Fountain was executed by Vincenzo Pacetti in 1791 from a design by Christopher Unterberger. The Fountain of Venus was probably designed by Giovanni Vasanzio. Marcantonio's sons Camillo and Francesco Borghese expanded the park.

The commune of Rome bought the gardens and gave them to the public in 1903. Since 1904, monuments depicting famous foreign personalities and writers such as Victor Hugo have been placed along the avenues. The statue of Goethe was a gift from Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Villas in the gardens

The Galleria Borghese is housed in the Villa Borghese itself. The garden Casino Borghese, built on a rise by architect Giovanni Vasanzio, was set up by Camillo Borghese to contain sculptures by Bernini from the Borghese collection, including his David and Daphne, and paintings by Titian, Raphael and Caravaggio. The Villa Giulia, built 1551–1555 as a summer residence for Pope Julius III, now contains the Etruscan Museum. The Villa Medici houses the French Academy in Rome, and the Fortezzuola holds a collection memorializing sculptor Pietro Canonica. Other villas are remains of a 1911 world exposition in Rome. The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna has a collection of 19th- and 20th-century paintings emphasizing Italian artists. The English pavilion, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, now houses the British School at Rome.

Gardens

Works on the Piano dei Licini began in 1784 and ended in 1790 with Mario Asprucci as director. The lake reflects the Temple of Aesculapius; other neoclassical structures include the temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the temple of Diana. Remaining furnishings include the sarcophagus of Phaethon, a column, some ollas, and a statue. The most recent statuary group is a bronze of satyrs playing with their little one from 1929. The Giardini Segreti are located on the border between the first and second enclosures. Originally on both sides of the Casino Nobile, one was called melangoli and the other flowers, dating to Cardinal Scipione's period. Two others date to around 1680 between the Uccelliera and Meridiana pavilions. They were used for rare and exotic bulb plants; ledgers from 1610 record payments for bulbous plants. The fourth garden serves as a nursery.

Other points of interest

A replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was built in the gardens in 2003. The 1911 Exposition's Zoo was redesigned as the Bioparco with minimal caging, and the Zoological Museum is nearby. A hydrochronometer based on Gian Battista Embriaco's 1867 design was built in the gardens in 1873. The Casina di Raffaello playroom offers crafts, reading rooms, and dress-up space.