BOTANICAL GARDEN

ORTO BOTANICO

Largo Cristina di Svezia 24

Built for Alexander VI Borgia (1492/1503), and later rebuilt for Pius IV Medici (1559/65) who employed in it a guardian who was a guide as well

S. Pius V Ghislieri (1566/72) enlarged the garden and entrusted it to the botanic expert Michele Mercati

After a period of neglect Alexander VII Chigi (1655/67) transformed it into one of the major botanical gardens in Europe, using for it the Acqua Paola aqueduct which Paul V Borghese (1605/21) had built from Bracciano to the Janiculum Hill, restoring the ancient Aqueduct of Trajan

In 1820 the Botanical Garden was moved in the garden of Palazzo Salviati in Via della Lungara and in 1873 in the garden of the former convent of S. Lorenzo in Via Panisperna to gather all the scientific institutes in the area of the Interior Ministry on Viminal Hill

In 1883 had its final home here in the garden of Palazzo Corsini when the property was transferred to the Italian State

It is one of the Museums of the Department of Environmental Biology of the University of Rome La Sapienza

Extension of 12 hectares (about 30 acres)

It houses over 3,500 plant species divided into sections:

Palm trees, Bamboo thickets, Valley of ferns, Orangery room, Roses, Japanese Garden, Aquatic Plants, Garden of the simple for medicinal plants and Garden of the aromas

THREE GREENHOUSES:

Exhibition Greenhouse for temporary exhibitions

Tropical Greenhouse with constant humidity of 80%

Corsini Greenhouse built at the end of the nineteenth century for succulents plants with two pools of black marble probably ancient in which it seems that Queen Christina of Sweden bathed

At the top of the hill the original tree structure has been kept, left as the Mediterranean evergreen forest known as Bosco Romano

From the clearings among the secular examples of oaks and sycamores (about 350/400 years old) one can enjoy fantastic views of the city

Below, in the direction of the palace, collection of conifers and near the gate of the palace reconstruction of a small California desert

In this lower area there are an Australian araucaria, an American redwood some Florida taxodium distichum and an oriental sycamore of the fifteenth century

The staircase by Ferdinando Fuga (1699/1782), the FOUNTAIN OF THE MERMEN and the big niche up against the top of the hill are the only preserved eighteenth-century decorations of the garden

GIANICOLENSI WALLS

MURA GIANICOLENSI

Viale delle Mura Portuensi/Viale Aurelio Saffi/Viale delle Mura Gianicolensi

1642/44 Marcantonio de Rossi (about 1607/61) military architect, father of the Bernini's assistant architect Mattia De Rossi, together with Domenico Castelli (1582/1657), Giovanni Bonazzini and Giulio Buratti for Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44) who entrusted the supervision of the works to Cardinal Vincenzo Maculano da Fiorenzuola

The walls are 3 km (1.9 miles) long, are fitted with twelve bulwarks and include JANICULUM HILL from Porta Cavalleggeri to Porta Portese, incorporating Villa Sciarra, Porta S. Pancrazio and the Promenade of the Janiculum

The bricks of the ancient Aurelian Walls of the Trastevere section were largely used. The ancient walls were destroyed to build the new

They were completed for Innocent X Pamphili (1644/55) with the construction of the current PORTA PORTESE built more to the north of the site of the original gate of the ancient Aurelian Walls

"In Trastevere the new areas of habitation had thickened and important roads had been laid out such as the wide road of St. Francis and the ascent of the Janiculum Hill (now Via Garibaldi), while the slopes of the Janiculum, occupied by an unbroken expanse of gardens extended from St. Peter's Basilica until the river and mansions along Via della Lungara, had become an area full of palaces and villas belonging to members of the papal court. (...) The Barberini walls therefore defined the new urban measure, with its poles, its emerging centralities and its network of connections no longer coinciding with the ancient one" (Daniela Fonti)

MONUMENT TO GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

MONUMENTO A GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Piazzale Giuseppe Garibaldi

1895 Emilio Gallori (1846/1924) who also completed Chiaradia's statue of Victor Emmanuel II on the Victor Emmanuel Monument

It is 22 m (72 feet) high. Gallori began working for the monument in 1886, two years after winning the competition

To make room for the monument in 1895 the CASINO CORSINI (Corsini Mansion) was destroyed, an old building curiously renovated with a neo-medieval appearance and turned into a lookout spot by the Roman section of the Alpine Club 

 

The posture of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807/82) has a clear gesture of resentment towards the Vatican he hated so much

On the pedestal FOUR BRONZE GROUPS:

On the front "Assault of the Bersaglieri of Luciano Manara"

On the right "America"

On the left "Europe"

In the back "Battle of Calatafimi"

On the left end side of the base there is a "Bronze Crown", a remainder that Garibaldi was the Master Mason of Italian Freemasonry. The crown was removed during the fascist period and replaced with fascist symbols. A new one was restored after the war

GIANICOLENSE MAUSOLEUM AND OSSUARY

MAUSOLEO OSSARIO GIANICOLENSE

Via Giuseppe Garibaldi 33

1941 Giovanni Jacobucci (1895/1970)

In the crypt there are the remains of the fallen for the defense of the Roman Republic in 1849, during the uprising in 1867 and for the liberation of Rome in 1870

During the battle of the September 20, 1870, that lasted about five hours, there were 49 dead among Italian "Bersaglieri" soldiers and 19 dead among the papal soldiers. The latter are remembered in a plaque in front of the Mausoleum of S. Costanza on Via Nomentana

Among the graves there is the one of the poet Goffredo Mameli (1827/49) who died at the age of 21. He was aide de camp of Giuseppe Garibaldi and was the author of the words of the Italian National Anthem

JANICULUM HILL

GIANICOLO

Passeggiata del Gianicolo

Dubbed the eighth hill and connected to the history of Rome just as much as the legendary seven hills

It is 82 m (270 feet) high

It is located on the right bank the Tiber, originally in Etruscan territory

The name of the hill in the tradition derives from the god Janus, who would have founded a town on the hill known by the name of Ianiculum. In reality, the name is in relation to this divinity on the Janiculum Hill there was only a chapel dedicated to his son Fons or Fontus

There was a small town (Pagus Ianiculensis) at the foot of the hill in the area corresponding to today's Piazza Mastai

It would have been occupied and annexed to Rome by Anco Marcio (640/616) who would have fortified it and connected to the city via the SUBLICIO BRIDGE on which the ancient road going through the hill and coming from Etruria used to pass; it later became the Via Aurelia

The original bridge was named Sublicio for the sublicae, planks of wood with which it was built, fixed by bronze nails. Horatius Cocles, according to legend, in 507 BC stopped the Etruscans on the bridge Sublicius and the Romans cut it behind him

The hill was not very much inhabited for the water shortage until the construction of the Trajan aqueduct

The Romans used to raise a flag on the Janiculum as a safety signal when the speeches were held in the Campus Martius outside the city walls

An area of the Janiculum Hill was covered with the sacred woods of the TEMPLE OF FURRINA near which Gaius Gracchus killed himself in 121 BC

Another area of worship, in a later period, was the SANTUARIO SIRIACO (Syrian Shrine) on the east slope of the hill, today Via Dandolo

The road winding from Via Garibaldi towards S. Pietro in Montorio was traced in the years 1865/68 by Federico Arcangeli and was lined with elm, locust, plane trees and melie azedarach

The PASSEGGIATA DEL GIANICOLO (Janiculum Esplanade) was opened in the years 1883/96. The stretch between the "Fontanone" of the Acqua Paola and Piazzale Garibaldi was inaugurated in 1884 and other large sections were opened to the public in 1887

Along the walking path of the hill there are “Eighty-four marble busts of Garibaldi's heroes” 1883/1949 made by various sculptors including:

 “Luigi Mercantini” beginning of 1900s by Ettore Ximenes (1855/1926)

“Angelo Tittoni” 1902 by Ettore Ferrari (1845/1929)

“Achille Sacchi” about 1908, “Eugenio Agneni” 1923 and “Giovanni Costa” 1926/27 by Giovanni Prini (1877/1958)

“Colomba Porzi Antonietti” 1910/11 by Giovanni Nicolini (1872/1956)

“Paolo Narducci” 1921, “Augusto Valenziani” about 1920 and “Raffaele Cadorna” 1923 by Publio Morbiducci (1889/1963)

Four busts represent foreigners fighting with Garibaldi: an Englishman, a Finn, a Hungarian and a Bulgarian

Under the Belvedere (viewpoint) of the Janiculum Hill every day since 1904 at 12 o'clock three soldiers load a cannon with blanks and fire a shot

The tradition dates back to Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) who instituted this service in 1846 to avoid confusion with time. Before firing from the Janiculum Hill, the cannon used to fire from Castel Sant'Angelo first and then from Monte Mario

AMERICAN ACADEMY

ACCADEMIA AMERICANA

Via Angelo Masina 5

Designed in 1890 by Charles Follen McKim (1847/1909) the architect of the Boston Public Library and the Library of Columbia University in New York

Built in the years 1910/15 after the death of the American architect

It houses the library of the American Academy with about 106,000 volumes relating especially to archeology and art history

The actual home of the Academy is in nearby Villa Aurelia in Piazzale Aurelio