Full of flowerbeds, scenic views, museums, cultural attractions and leisure facilities, this is the city’s most popular and beloved park. Owned by the Borghese family for four centuries, in 1903 the princes’ garden became a park for the people of Rome after it was purchased by the Italian State and placed under Municipality of Rome management.
Cardinal Scipione, nephew of Pope Paul V, commissioned Villa Borghese just outside the city walls in the early 17th century. The 80-hectare park features a “Casino Nobile” (the modern-day Galleria Borghese), which today houses a rich collection of art. The Park’s many smaller buildings, originally used to manage the complex, have since been repurposed as museums and venues for cultural activities. Alongside an area arranged in geometric patterns and full of statues and fountains, the Cardinal was keen on creating prized “Secret Gardens” filled with rare flowers; he also set aside large areas for farming and hunting. Between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Prince Marcantonio IV and his sons Camillo and Francesco transformed the park’s appearance and had it extended. Agricultural production was wound up, the park was enriched with spectacular architecture, and the more rustic buildings were upgraded to a luxurious style. The biggest change, however, was the transformation of a plantation of holm oaks into a “Lake Garden”. This feature was inspired by the canons of the English-style garden which, albeit later than in England, France and northern Italy, was gaining popularity in Rome. A long-running dispute between the family and the Italian State ended with the State purchasing the park and opening it to the public in 1903. With the exception of the Borghese Gallery, which remained under State management, the Municipality of Rome took over the complex and made further changes. During Fascism and World War II, the park’s layout was altered once again, with the addition of asphalt driveways, and removal of its gates and protective walls.
Highlights
The Secret Gardens
The Cardinal and his nephew Giovanbattista commissioned three gardens on either side of the “Casino nobile”, enclosed on all sides to protect against indiscriminate use and the winter’s rigours. They were conceived to house rare plants and flowers, many from the Americas. In 2000, these gardens underwent meticulous restoration of the flower beds to their original design, including the planting of 17th-century flowers.
The Valley of the Plane Trees
In the more rustic part of this 17th-century park, a pleasant little valley once had a fishpond with black and white swans, surrounding by a grove of Platanus orientalis. Ten of these trees still grow today, true living monuments surrounded by trees unrelated to that original planting. The small “Casino del Graziano”, where the Cardinal and his guests used to stop on hunting trips, stands at the edge of the valley.
Fountains
The park has always had its fair share of spectacular fountains. Of the ones that have survived to the present day, two Fontane Oscure [dark fountains] are so called because they stand in the shade of holm oaks and plane trees; the spectacular Fontana dei Cavalli Marini [Fountain of the Seahorses], with four winged horses pawing at the water; the Fontana di Esculapio or del Fiocco [Fountain of Aesculapius or of the Flake], with a statue of the god and, originally, a particularly high jet of water; and the two fountains in the secret gardens, decorated with dragons and eagles, which are the Borghese family’s emblems.
The Lake Garden
At the end of the 18th century, Marcantonio Borghese created Rome’s first English-style garden. Designed by Antonio and Mario Asprucci, it featured the work of many sculptors. Winding pathways, a lake, eclectic decor, and rare, exotic plants were incorporated into an old ilex grove. The Temple of Aesculapius, a classical building with sculptures associated with the myth surrounding the god of medicine, stands on a small island in the lake.
Museums
With its focus on cultural institutions, Villa Borghese is every bit as much a Museum as it is a Park. Galleria Borghese, the “Casino nobile” where the Cardinal began his collection with masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Bernini and Canova, is world famous. The Pietro Canonica Museum, in the Piedmontese sculptor’s former home, dates from 1960. Since 2006, the former Orangery has housed the Carlo Bilotti Museum, donated by the patron after whom it is named and featuring works by De Chirico, Warhol, Severini, and Manzù.