The impressive story of Rome frescoes

a Borghese was the development of a family property extended at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli Borghese, nephew of Paolo V (Camillio Borghese, 1605-1621), who assigned the design of the Villa di delizie, literally ‘Villa of delights’, to Flaminio Ponzio and Giovanni Vasanzio. Work began in 1606 and was completed in 1664. The villa developed around the Casino Nobile or Great Lodge (which today houses the Galleria Borghese) with an entry portico in the central building between two extensions, following the model of Villa della Farnesina. The Lodge had originally been used to house the family’s rich collection of art. In accordance with the typical layout of Renaissance villas, the large space around the main building was used for a walled garden with fruit trees and rare flowers as well as a formal garden with flower beds and avenues, embellished with sculptures and fountains. The first perimeter included the Aviaries, the work of Girolamo Rainaldi (1617-1619), which formed the perspective backdrop of a second, secret garden. A second perimeter, now the Parco dei Daini, enclosed the Prince’s private garden. The third and largest perimeter included a natural park with a sector devoted to cultivation. The conversion of the Renaissance and Baroque garden to a Romantic style garden, inspired by English examples, was undertaken by Marcantonio IV Borghese between 1766 and 1793 to a design by the architects Antonio and Mario Asprucci which profoundly changed the area of the third perimeter. The focal point of the new structure was the Giardino del Lago, adorned with the temple of Esculapius. Architectural features included the temple of Diana, that of Antoninus and Faustina and the large space that was used as a racetrack, inspired by Roman models, called the Piazza di Siena. The Casino dei Giuochi d’Acqua, or the Lodge of Water Features, (converted to an Orangery), was immortalised in one of the first Roman paintings by Ippolito Caffi (1834), preserved in the Museum of Rome.The eclectic arrangement in neoclassical style that characterised the nineteenth century was the work of the archeologist and architect, Luigi Canina. On festival days, the villa was opened to the public with amusements for payment: the menagerie at the Giardino del Lago, the velodrome Piazza di Siena, the pigeon shoot at the Parco dei Daini, the sale of milk and waffles with cream at the Dairy (Casina delle Rose). From 1903, the villa was sold to the Municipality of Rome and opened to the public. Recent improvement works of the great Roman park included the installation of the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre inspired by the Elizabethan model and the Casa del Cinema, near the Casina delle Rose.

r Jacopo Zucchi and assistants in the 1570s.

VIII (Maffeo Barberini, 1623-1644), work began in 1625 to construct the complex designed by Carlo Maderno, with the collaboration of Domenico Castelli and the young Francesco Borromini. The project, a masterpiece of Roman Baroque, went beyond the traditional layout of Renaissance palaces arranged around a central courtyard and created a combination of a palace and a villa. Open wings were added to the central building with nymphaeum-style atrium between the entrance arcade and garden, merging the mansion and the suburban villa and emphasising the relationship between the building and nature, in part inspired by the Villa Farnesina. A private theatre was annexed to the palace in the Baroque style.In constructing the majestic complex, Pietro da Cortona and Gian Lorenzo Bernini contributed by creating the palace façade on the garden with three orders of columns and a square stairwell in the right wing. Francesco Borromini designed the spiral staircase and the first floor windows of the central building. Pietro da Cortona painted the cycle of frescos in the room of representation which celebrated the Barberini, depicting the triumph of Divine Providence over Time and immortalising the family coat-of-arms. In 1875, to create Via Barberini, the entrance to the garden was demolished and transferred to Via Quattro Fontane. Today the palace houses the important National Gallery of Ancient Art, with masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque art including those of Filippo Lippi, Lorenzo Lotto, Holbein, Perugino, Poussin and Caravaggio.

Roman suburb of Prima Porta, along the via Flaminia. The frescoes, dated around the second half of the 1st century BC, decorated the walls of the underground triclinium, or dining room, belonging to the house of Livia Drusilla, wife of the Roman emperor Augustus, known as “Villa di Livia” or “Villa di Primaporta”.

astorius, Claudius Sinfronian and Nicostratus) who were martyred because they refused to sculpt a statue of Esculapius during the Diocletian empire or, according to another version, to four soldiers who refused to worship Esculapius. The building of worship was probably erected by the IV century on the structures of an ancient domus. Mentioned for the first time in 595 and completely rebuilt in the Carolingian era under the papacy of Leone IV (847-855), it was badly damaged in the sack of Rome by the Normans in 1084. Together with the convent annex, the complex of the Quattro Coronati still displays the salient features of the architecture of the High Middle Ages, preserved in the reconstruction ordered by Pasquale II (Raniero di Bieda, 1099-1118).The interior of the church, with three naves and furnished with a women’s gallery, has two chapels at the sides with cruciform and apsidal plan. Alongside the church is the thirteenth century cloister with the fountain for purification rites, originally located in the pronaos of the medieval church.The room in front of the nearby Oratory preserves a liturgical calendar with the months of the year (XIII century).The monastery annex preserves the remains of the Carolingian tower belonging to the fortified complex located along the Via Papale, heading to San Giovanni in Laterano, which stood there until the Middle Ages. Martino V (Oddone Colonna 1417-1431) declared it the seat of the papacy.

her husband Valerianus, of Pope Urbano I (222-230 A.D.). She was martyred by decapitation after a series of tortures culminating in her exposure, for three days, to the steam of the caldarium of the baths of her own house. She was buried in the Catacombs of San Callisto alongside the so-called \"Crypt of the Popes\". The body was later transferred to the house, earlier converted to a church by Pope Urbano I, at the wishes of Pope Pasquale I (817-824) who also ordered the reconstruction of the basilica. Between the XII and the XIII centuries, the portico, cloister and bell tower were added. In 1599, the body of Santa Cecilia was exhumed. The statue by Stefano Maderno is thought to stand in the exact position in which the body of the Saint was found. Between the XVI and XVIII century, the building underwent various additions including the monumental entrance of Ferdinando Fuga, which gives access to the atrium of the basilica. Beneath the church are the remains of an archeological complex attributed to a domus of the II century B.C., a multistory insula from the end of the II century A.D. and a number of thermal rooms. Recent excavations have also brought to light a baptismal font dating from the most ancient phase of the church.

508. Violently plundered by the Lanzichenecchi during the sack of Rome in 1527, it was acquired at the end of the century by the Farnese, adopting the name of Farnesina in order to distinguish it from the grand city palace on the opposite bank, to which it was intended to be connected by a bridge according to a design by Michelangelo, never carried out. A little slipway allowed communication between the two properties. The building, integrated into the surrounding countryside, had an innovative plan with a central block opening towards the formal garden, with a five arched loggia bordered by two protruding sections, recalling Tuscan architectural models. The rear façade, facing the Tiber, has two orders of windows with architraves accompanied by pilasters. The building is surmounted by a large cornice with corbels and a frieze of cherubs and candelabras between festoons of fruit and flowers. The façade was originally decorated according to the fashion of the early years of the sixteenth century. The design of the separate pavilion, perhaps used as stables, is attributed to Raphael. Between the palace and the Tiber stood the Viridarium, bathed by the river, perhaps designed by Raphael, which was destroyed with part of the gardens in 1884 in order to build the Lungotevere. The gardens of the Renaissance villa sloped downwards with steep banks, pavilions, a grotto with fish pond and culminated with a loggia on the river, used as an exedra (a dining room). At the end of one of the sumptuous banquets in 1518, it is said the gold dishes were thrown into the river (presumably recovered later from hidden nets). The greatest artists of the Renaissance collaborated on the splendid decoration of the interiors, such as Raphael, Giulio Romano, Sebastiano del Piombo, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Sodoma. A complex iconographic scheme inspired by the classics is combined with scenographic effects of illusionistic views of landscapes and Roman architecture. The villa passed to the Bourbons in 1704 and housed the Academy of Naples founded by Carlo III. Today it is the home of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.In the nineteenth century works on the Lungotevere, a Roman villa of a person of high rank was brought to light with sophisticated decoration in frescos dating from around 20 A.D., preserved at the Museum of Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.

ould become a reference point for the construction of Jesuit religious buildings throughout Europe. Commissioned in 1550 by Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, it was only constructed ten years later, thanks to the financing of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, to a design by Jacopo Barozzi, known as Vignola. On his death, the works were completed (1584) by Giacomo della Porta, who also created the façade and the cupola. The structure blends a central plan layout with longitudinal development. The church has a single nave covered with barrel vaults and flanked by three chapels on each side. The façade, in travertine, anticipates a number of formal approaches of Baroque art, with a wide prospect and protruding elements, and reflects the desire to create a scenic urban environment. The prospect develops on two levels. In the lower order, the pairs of parastades mark the nave and the lateral chapels. In the upper order, the parastades are repeated only in the nave area while the position of the chapels is masked by two large spirals that also form the connection with the roof. This architectural approach would be commonly adopted by churches with longitudinal plans constructed in Rome. Inside, there are noteworthy frescos on the vault by Giovan Battisa Gaulli, known as Baciccia.

he service of Giulio III (Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monti 1550-1555), as well as patron and friend of Michelangelo, Raphael, Benvenuto Cellini and Giorgio Vasari. Bindo Altoviti converted and amplified his father Antonio\'s palace to which a number of adjacent dwellings had been annexed. The palace had two entrances. One was on Piazza di Ponte, an austere city prospect on three floors with ashlar at the ground floor. The other faced the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, giving access to an inner courtyard by a large staircase to the Saletta di scrittura, where Vasari painted the cycle of frescos known as the Trionfo di Cerere (today in the National Museum of Palazzo Venezia), an allusion to Bindo\'s position as manager of the Ufficio Abbondanza. The façade on the Tiber, lacked uniformity with traces of the superimposition on the old buildings. A double loggia opened on the river, attributed to Raphael and supported by a base with alternating large arches and pilasters, a favourite spot to watch the spectacle of the Girandola fireworks display at Castel Sant’Angelo. The side on the river was lined with wooden workshops, rented to artisans until the seventeenth century.In 1888, with the construction of the walled embankments of the Tiber, the palace was demolished, following the removal in 1887 of the frescos created in 1553 by Giorgio Vasari.

le in the political and social life of the city due to the presence of Palazzo di Montecitorio, chosen as the seat of the Chamber of Deputies and the new Palazzo delle Poste (Palazzo Wedekind). However, it was necessary to complete the side of the square that was left empty by the demolition in 1888 of Palazzo Piombino, owned by the Boncompagni Ludovisi. The designs and proposals for the development of the area were wide-ranging and provoked lively debate. Only in 1911 was the plan of the architect Dario Carbone approved. The building, in an eclectic style that sought to recall the architecture of both the fifteen and eighteenth centuries, was inaugurated in 1922. Constructed in reinforced concrete masked by cladding in travertine, it has a large portico on the façade of Via del Corso. The internal gallery, to a “Y” plan, is covered by glass decorated with figures, in art nouveau style, featuring the use of coloured marble in the elevations and the floors. From 2003, after long restoration, the gallery was reopened and dedicated to the great Roman actor, Alberto Sordi.

the building with the appearance of an architectural block of the eighteenth century.The original nucleus, on Via del Corso, is arranged around a central courtyard, inspired by Bramante, with colonnaded quadrangle in two superimposed orders, commissioned by Cardinal Fazio Santorio in the early sixteenth century and built on the fifteenth century palace of Cardinal Nicola Acciapacci. The building later passed to the Della Rovere and was bought in 1601 by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini. With the wedding of Olimpia Aldobrandini to Camillo Pamphilj, nephew of Innocenzo X (Giovambattista Pamphilj, 1644-1655), the palace became the residence of the Pamphilj. They commissioned Antonio del Grande to design a new wing on Piazza del Collegio Romano between 1659 and 1675. The complex stands on Via del Corso with an elegant façade, the work of Gabriele Valvassori, composed of five vertical ashlar bands and a portal with columns surmounted by a chequered balcony. The other facades are on Via del Plebiscito, the work of Paolo Ameli (1743), and Via della Gatta, by Andrea Busiri Vici (1877). Inside, Gabriele Valvassori converted the sixteenth century arcade between 1731 and 1734 into a Gallery, used to display works of art, and the Braccio degli Specchi adorned with lavish decoration in rococo style.The residence of the Pamphilj family, since 1671 joined with the Doria, it now houses one of the most important historical galleries of Rome with works by Velasquez, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci.

ables of the postal service of Imperial Rome) along the Via Lata, where the Pope had died after being condemned to forced labour by the emperor Maximianus (286-310 A.D.). The church originally had a layout of three naves with apse positioned on Via del Corso. In an adjacent room, a baptismal font was present. The church and the baptistry, restored in the XII century, were again destroyed by a fire in 1519. On that occasion, a wooden Crucifixion from the XV century was miraculously saved, becoming an object of great devotion. The reconstruction was assigned to Jacopo Sansovino (1519), who changed the orientation of the building so that it faced onto Via del Corso. The concave Baroque façade was constructed by Carlo Fontana between 1682 and 1686. The interior is formed of a single nave with five lateral chapels and houses works by Perin del Vaga (the Four Evangelists in the chapel of the Madonna), Alessandro Algardi (busts of the Frangipane), Taddeo and Federico Zuccari (Stories of Saint Paul in the chapel of the Frangipane). Inside, the ancient immersion baptistry from the IV-V century can be seen resting on Roman masonry perhaps belonging to the Statio of the Prima Corte dei Vigili.

forms a sort of Insula dei Gesuiti, commissioned by Sant’Ignazio on the model of the University of Paris, where he had studied theology in 1528. The complex included the library, the Kircherian museum, the Spicery and the Astronomical Observatory. Pope Gregorio XV (Alessandro Ludovisi, 1621-1623), who was linked to the Jesuits and was buried inside the church, asked his nephew Ludovico Ludovisi to construct the new building, the design for which, the work of the Jesuit Orazio Grassi (adversary in a dispute with Galileo), was approved in 1629 and completed in 1685, but without the cupola. The Jesuit Andrea Pozzo, to compensate for the architectural incompleteness, depicted, on a canvass 17 metres in diameter, a cupola open to a luminous sky with an extreme perspective that reached the apex of Baroque illusionism. The compact façade copied the monumental approach of the Chiesa del Gesù with two orders of columns and Corinthian pilasters with cornices and reverse lateral scrolls, demonstrating adaptability in the empty niches flanking the main portal in the lower order and, in the upper, the large central window, through which light illuminated the nave.The magnificent interior is a Latin cross with a single nave, with three chapels each side and exuberant pictorial decoration that amplifies and multiples the spaces. The church represents the fullest evolution of the new model demanded by the liturgy of the Counter Reformation.

me, along with the monastery annex of the Basilian monks, replaced from 1266 by the Dominicans who made Santa Maria sopra Minerva the mother church of their order. A focal point for Tuscans before the construction of the sixteenth century San Giovanni de’ Fiorentini, the church housed important tombs of Florentine nobles and prelates. The model of Santa Maria Novella of Florence, albeit simplified, inspired the construction of the new building from 1280, the only example of Italian Gothic in Rome that has been preserved. After the resumption of works at the wishes of Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, uncle of the famous Inquisitor, the façade was completely redone in 1453 thanks to the intervention of Count Francesco Orsini. In 1600, Carlo Maderno reworked the façade in Renaissance style, in three sections with pilasters, inspired by that of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. In the reorganisation of 1667 of the square in front, the little elephant with the obelisk was erected to the design of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Until 1725, the façade preserved the exposed brickwork, plastered during the eighteenth century restoration by Filippo Raguzzini. Between 1848 and 1855, radical work sought to restore the Gothic lines by demolishing the Baroque additions and decorating the interiors with early Gothic frescos. The interior houses masterpieces of Renaissance artists, including Filippino Lippi (Cappella Carafa), Beato Angelico and Michelangelo (statue of the Risen Christ). The solemn Papal cavalcade of March 25 for the festival of the Annunciation ended here, starting under the papacy of Eugenio IV (Gabriele Condulmer 1431-1447) until Pio VI (Giovannagelo Braschi 1775-1799). In 1431 and 1447, the conclaves that elected Eugenio IV and Niccolo V respectively were held in the sacristy. The convent annex, with painting of the school of Antoniazzo Romano, hosted the infamous tribunal of the Inquisition of the Dominican order. The congregation of the Holy Office held the trial of Galileo here in 1633.