Beginning
of 1500s for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese later Paul III (1534/49)
Between
1650 and 1667 it was completely rebuilt for Cardinal Girolamo Farnese
During the
following years it belonged to the families Latera, Bentivoglio of Aragon, the
Bourbons of Naples and Giraud
In 1841 it
was bought by Prince Alexander Savorelli who had it restored by Virginio Vespignani (1808/82)
During the
Roman Republic in 1849 Giuseppe Garibaldi had his headquarters here and it was
partly destroyed by the French during the siege of Rome on that same year
In 1885 the
villa was bought by the American lady Clara Jessup Heyland, wife of an English
officer who had been injured during the war in India
The lady
changed the name of the villa into VILLA AURELIA, had it restored and had the
garden fitted
In 1909, by
the will of Mrs. Heyland, the ownership of the house passed to the AMERICAN
ACADEMY IN ROME, an institute of American culture, whose director was the
American architect William Rutherford Mead
In 1914 it
was restored by the architectural studio of Charles
Follen McKim (1847/1909), William Rutherford
Mead (1846/1928) and Stanford White (1853/1906)
In the
years 1946-47, the Academy started a restoration of the villa, executed by the
architect Bruno Zevi (1918/2000) under the
supervision of the Director of Laurence Roberts
“The architecture
firm of McKim, Mead, and White defined the look of Gilded Age America. They
designed New York's original Penn Station. They built mansions in Newport,
R.I., for robber barons and industrial tycoons. They were even invited to
renovate the White House in 1903. (...) Stanford White may be best known today
for the scandal surrounding his murder (he was shot by the jealous husband of a
former lover) but 100 years ago, he and his colleagues were designing a nation.
The three men took much of their inspiration from Europe, at a time when
traveling to Europe could be a grueling ordeal. They see the first world; they
see the old world; they see things that are medieval, things that are Baroque,
the Roman amphitheater at Arles. (...) As trans-Atlantic travel grew easier,
they began to bring some of this architectural booty home with them. (...) They
see themselves as a huge Santa Claus, with a backpack and they put the
buildings and the style and the things that they can buy in this backpack, and
bring it to the Americans” (Mosette Broderick)
Nearby, on Via Angelo Masina there is the Library of the American Academy
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