Villa Borghese Park (Rome) (Portion 1)

The villa and its park were being intended in 1605 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V. The park was the very first of its form in Rome. It contained 400 recently-planted pine trees, backyard sculpture by Bernini’s father, Pietro, and extraordinary waterworks created by Giovanni Fontana.

The format of the official gardens was imitated by other distinguished Roman households at Villa Ludovisi and Villa Doria Pamphilj. In the early 19th century Prince Camillo Borghese assembled the family’s spectacular artwork selection in the On line casino Borghese, now the house of the Galleria and Museo Borghese.

In 1901 the park grew to become the house of the Italian state. In just its 6-km (4-mile) circumference there are now museums and galleries, overseas academies and universities of archaeology, a zoo, a riding university, a grassy amphitheatre, an artificial lake, an aviary and an array of summertime-residences, fountains, Neo-Classical statuary and unique follies.

There are numerous strategies into the park, which include a monumental entrance on Piazzale Flaminio, developed for Prince Camillo Borghese in 1825 by Luigi Canina. Other conveniently-sited entrances are at Porta Pinciana at the end of Through Veneto and from the Pincio Gardens.

Piazza di Siena, a pleasantly open, grass-coated amphitheatre surrounded by tall umbrella pines, was the inspiration for Ottorino Respighi’s well known symphonic poem The Pines of Rome, prepared in 1924. In the vicinity of Piazza di Siena are the so-called Casina di Raffaello, said to have been owned by Raphael, and the 18th-century Palazzetto dell’ Orologio. These had been summerhouses from which men and women savored the stunning vistas across the park. Lots of buildings in the park had been initially surrounded by formal gardens: the Casino Borghese and the close by 17th-century Casino della Meridiana and its aviary (uccelliera) have each stored their geometrical flowerbeds.

Throughout the park the intersections of paths and avenues are marked by fountains and statues. West of Piazza di Siena is the Fontana dei Cavalli Marini (the Fountain of the Seahorses) extra through the villa’s 18thcentury remodelling.

Strolling by way of the park you will face statues of Byron, Goethe and Victor Hugo, and a gloomy equestrian King Umberto I.

Dotted about the park are picturesque temples manufactured to seem like ruins, like a round Temple of Diana in between Piazza di Siena and Porta Pinciana, and a Temple of Faustina, spouse of Emperor Antoninus Pius, on the hill north of Piazza di Siena. The nearby medieval-looking Fortezzuola by Canina is made up of the will work of the sculptor Pietro Canonica, who lived in the creating and died there in 1959.