Villa Torlonia

A combination of art, architecture, history and landscape. One look towards the past and tradition and the other towards the contemporary.

Gardens of Villa Torlonia (photo made by Carlotta Ceccarini)

A public park with its 15 hectares overlooking Via Nomentana in Rome. A historic villa that houses a complex of buildings, now mostly museum spaces. Villa born as an agricultural estate under the sign of the Pamphili, became the property of the Torlonia in the mid-1700s, before becoming the park known today, it was Mussolini's residence. Fallen into a state of neglect after the World War, it was restored thanks to the expropriation carried out by the Municipality of Rome and opened to the public in 1978. Today it houses prestigious museums from the Roman School to the Glass Museum. Walking along the paths that cross the villa’s park, two particular buildings can be seen among the trees, if they can be defined as such. The Serra Moresca which after years of oblivion has reopened its doors in recent months and the Casina delle Civette.

The rustic Casina delle Civette is a twentieth-century superimposition of architectural and artistic styles that followed the taste of the heirs of the Torlonia family, transforming into their own home during the period of residence of the Duce in the noble building. Architecture and decorative arts that defining liberty would be too simplistic; an absolutely eclectic work, attentive to every detail and in perfect symbiosis with nature and its inhabitants. Today known as the Museum of Artistic Glass, it features Picchiarini's superfine work capable of transforming Dullio Cambellotti's designs into reality. A play of lights and colors that immerse the visitor in an atmosphere of seduction and silence. The same game that is relived in the Serra Moresca, where arabesques of colored plants reflect shadows and lights in an exotic atmosphere.

Alongside these unique architectural and artistic works, the small and refined Casino dei Principi has now become an archive-library and allows you to immerse yourself in the life of these nobles and the artists they surrounded themselves with. The upper floors are now destined to host the temporary exhibitions of Villa Torlonia, creating a link between past and present.

The Casino Nobile was and still is the heart of the villa. Prince Torlonia had a pre-existing seventeenth-century building renovated and his son Alessandro had it enlarged and decorated in 1832, commissioning the architect decorator Giovan Battista Caretti, who dedicated ten years of his career to the villa, inspired by the Raphaelesque rooms of the Vatican. The Palladian pronaos and Doric columns open the view to the princely ballroom, whose precious chandeliers illuminate the walls and doors decorated with stucco vestments by Domenico del Frate and plaster bas-reliefs by Antonio Canova. Homage to the Macedonian leader is the room of Alexander, on which Prince Torlonia himself is projected. An Egyptian style in line with the taste of the time that breaks with the fascist style that Mussolini preferred during his stay.

The Casino Nobile hosts on the second floor the works of the Roman School, artists active in Rome between the 1920s and 1940s who interact with the painters of Magical Surrealism. A perfect mix of non-labelable and diametrically connected personalities. The works of the Ingrao Guina collection are celebrated, among which the Seated Girl with the Red Apron by Guttuso is combined with the serigraphs by Alberto Burri.

Photos made by Carlotta Ceccarini