PINCIAN HILL OBELISK

OBELISCO PINCIANO

Piazza Bucarest

Built for Hadrian (117/138) and dedicated to his gay lover Antinous, who was born in Bithynia in northern Turkey

It was found in 1500 near the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, where in antiquity there was the Sessorian Palace and it was moved in 1632 in front of Palazzo Barberini by pope Urban VIII

It was moved again in 1773 in the Cortile della Pigna in the Vatican, where he was never raised, and finally erected here on the Pincian Hill in 1822 by Giuseppe Marini for Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23)

The inscriptions on the obelisk say that it was placed on the tomb of Antinous and that the tomb of Antinous was in the garden of the emperor in Rome

Maybe then it was in the gardens of Adonis on the Palatine Hill from which also come the round reliefs of the Arch of Constantine

“The cult of Antinous lasted much longer than the reign of Hadrian, his imperial lover. Free of Hadrian he drew his mass following, and his image is found not only in works of art for the upper classes but also in objects of daily life - lamps, plates and bowls. Whatever was the original idea behind his deification, the ageless Bitinious became a talisman by which the Greeks inhabitants of the empire could simultaneously celebrate their identity and their loyalty to Rome. He embodied the reconciliation between the two dominant cultures of the Mediterranean world. He was the Panhellenic ideal made flesh” (Anthony Everitt)

VALADIER'S VILLA

CASINA VALADIER

Viale del Belvedere

1816/37 Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839)

He reworked in Neoclassical style the former seventeenth century Casino della Rota (Mansion of the Wheel), which used to belong to the Augustinian Friars of S. Maria del Popolo and it had been built in turn on the ancient CISTERNS OF THE ACILII GARDENS of which are clearly visible in the basement 61 sqm (657 square feet) of Roman ancient walls built with the opus reticulatum technique

"The extant documentation (...) confirms the choice of the Roman architect to regularize the remaining part of the building, providing it with open-air elements such as the two side porticos on the north and south, and a semicircular porch on the rear façade facing east. The final result is that of an updated architecture in the style of a French ‘Maison’ of the late eighteenth century - early nineteenth century, therefore Neoclassical" (Alessandro Cremona – Verdi Delizie: Le ville, i giardini, i parchi storici del Comune di Roma)

Painted decorations in Pompeian style by Tommaso Parravani

Renovated for use as café-restaurant by Gioacchino Ersoch (1815/1902), who also oversaw the rearrangement of the PINCIO GARDEN

1922 restoration of the decorations and new paintings by Raffaele Ojetti (1845/1924)

After the liberation of Rome on June 4, 1943 it became a center of command of the Allied Forces

New restoration in 1964 with decorations by Mario de Paolis

It is one of the historical restaurants of Rome and it reopened in 2004 as a restaurant after a long period of decline

The large EMPIRE ROOM on the first floor was repainted and decorated by Federico Forquet in imitation of the Neoclassical style