ALDOBRANDINI VILLA

VILLA ALDOBRANDINI

Via Mazzarino 11

End of 1500s by Carlo Lambardi (1545/1619) for the Vitelli family who had bought the preexisting building with land in 1566 from the Genoese family Grimaldi

It was bought in 1601 by Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605) who gave it to his nephew Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini and had it restored in the years 1601/02 by Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602)

Here used to be kept a huge collection of paintings and ancient statues including the “Aldobrandini Wedding” now in the Vatican Museums

“The area where the villa was built has played a leading role since the second half of the sixteenth century, in relation to the arrangement of the Roman road ‘Alta Semita’ (High Semite) promoted by Pius IV (1559/65), completed in 1561, symbol of the 'salus publica' (public health) given back to the city by the pope. The renewal of the street gave impetus to the construction of new gardens, usually arranged by clients who delighted in antiquarian research, and in this way would recover the Renaissance scholarly tradition of this hill linked to the activities of Pomponio Leto (1425/98)” (Carla Benocci - Verdi Delizie, le ville, i giardini, i parchi storici del Comune di Roma)

In the third decade of the 1700s Gabriele Valvassori (1683/1761) was in charge of the maintenance of the garden, and designed the appearance appropriate to the French taste of the time

In 1811 the property passed to Count Alexandre François Sextius Miollis, General of Napoleon

“The Count Miollis introduced a new neoclassical idea of collecting works in a museum inspired by Antonio Canova. The sculpture collection was enriched (...); the interiors were furnished with a large collection of paintings both French and Italian, following the general taste, who had made the villa a veritable living room, where it was possible to study Latin literature, especially the works of Virgil” (Carla Benocci - Verdi Delizie, le ville, i giardini, i parchi storici del Comune di Roma)

In 1814 it was re-acquired by Giuseppe Aldobrandini who in 1846 had a NYMPHAEUM built by G.B. Benedetti

In 1876 the area of the villa was halved for earthworks due to the opening of Via Nazionale

In 1929 it was bought by the Italian state

Since 1992 it is a public park

“It is one of the oldest and most prestigious Renaissance complex, where there were exposed famous collections of paintings and sculptures, inherited by Pietro Aldobrandini and later transferred to the Galleria Doria Pamphili, the Borghese Gallery and other collections” (Carla Benocci - Verdi Delizie, le ville, i giardini, i parchi storici del Comune di Roma)

ENTRANCE ON VIA MAZZARINO

1938 Cesare Valle (1902/2000)

BUILDINGS ON VIA NAZIONALE AND BETWEEN VIA NAZIONALE AND VIA MAZZARINO

Built between late 1800s and early 1900s after the opening of Via Nazionale

BUILDING ON THE CORNER BETWEEN VIA MAZZARINO AND VIA PANISPERNA

It is the seat of the Istituto internazionale per l'Unificazione del Diritto Privato (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law)

The rest of the villa is managed by the City of Rome

On Via Mazzarino large ancient brick building, probably WAREHOUSES OF LUCIUS NEVIO CLEMENT of the end of the first century AD with restorations carried out at the time of Trajan (98/117) and the Severian emperors (193/235), covered later by the embankment of the BATHS OF CONSTANTINE