GLORY VILLA

VILLA GLORI

Via Maresciallo Pilsudski/Via Venezuela/Via Elia Enrico

 Agricultural area of ​​about 25 hectares (62 acres) converted into a public park in the years 1923/24, in eight months, by Raffaele De Vico (1881/1969)

Previously, the area was known as Vigna Glori as it was property of Vincenzo Glori

The park was dedicated to the fallen of World War I under the name PARCO DELLA RIMEMBRANZA (Park of Remembrance) and later rededicated to all the Romans fallen for their country with the installation of the "Big iron cross" on Piazzale di Villa Glori

There were planted about 7000 plants, including about 5500 trees, 110 shrubs and 300 meters of hedge

"A number of avenues, whose names recall the protagonists of the battle of October 23, 1867 between the papal troops and seventy men (Avenue of the Seventies) commanded by the Cairoli brothers, cut through the park and converge in Piazzale del Mandorlo where there is the monument in memory of the sacrifice for Rome made by the Cairoli brothers, a small structure in bricks in which a dry branch of the almond tree under which Enrico Cairoli died is inserted as well as a memorial dedicated to the Italian soldiers killed during peacetime. A small plaque dedicated to the Carabinieri who died in Nasiriyah in 2003 was placed in the ground behind the almond branch" (Web site of the Superintendence of Roman Cultural Heritage - www.sovraintendenzaroma.it)

In 1929 THREE HALLS IN WOOD were built to host a summer camp known as Dispensario Marchiafava (Marchiafava Dispensary) for children of poor health. Now the complex houses a HOUSE OF THE CARITAS ORGANIZATION for the care of people with AIDS

"In 1997, from an idea of the art critic Daniela Fonti, the City of Rome has promoted the establishment of a park of contemporary sculpture with an initiative of permanent exhibition entitled Varcare la Soglia (Crossing the Threshold), which would suggest the possibility of experiencing integration between art and nature, between a place of suffering and a place of recreation and rest" (Web site of the Superintendence of Roman Cultural Heritage - www.sovraintendenzaroma.it)

Parco di Scultura Contemporanea

Park of Contemporary Sculpture

Works of contemporary art created especially for the villa and exhibited here since 1997:

“Meditation” by Maria Dompè (1959)

“Order” by Eliseo Mattiacci (1940)

“Laser-Arch” by Maurizio Mochetti (1940)

“Mediterranean Portal” by Nino Caruso (1928)

“The Monads” by Pino Castagna (1932)

“Installation” by Jannis Kounellis (1936)

“Line” by Nunzio Di Stefano aka Nùnzio (1954)

"A pupil of Toti Scialoja at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he soon investigated the expressive and formal possibilities of matter and its interrelationship with space and light through works, often laden with metaphorical meanings. (...) Until the mid-eighties Nùnzio has made large undulating and irregular surfaces in painted plaster, composed of two or three elements anchored to walls. He later used different materials (wood, sometimes burnt, iron sheets, dripping lead) processed with a more structured and geometric rigor which, interacting with light and the surrounding space, would offer a constantly ambiguous perception, as plastic or pictorial values​​" (Alexandra Andresen - Enciclopedia Treccani)

"Installation" by Mauro Staccioli (1937)

In 2000 two more works were added: "Gate of the Sun" by Giuseppe Uncini (1929/2008) and "Grass-Man " by Paolo Canevari (1963)

The park is unfortunately currently in conditions of neglect for the fault of politicians who run the artistic heritage of Rome