Villa Lubin

Located within Villa Borghese, Villa Lubin was built in 1908 to be the headquarters of the International Institute of Agriculture. The creation of the institute, set up under the patronage of Victor Emmanuel III, was conceived and supported by David Lubin, an American self-made man who came to Italy and settled in Rome in 1904.
The institute had the ambitious goal of advancing research in the agricultural sector, from a technological, commercial and even credit point of view, and submitting the results to the European powers to encourage the coordination of production between the various countries.
The villa was designed by the architect Pompeo Passerini in a style somewhere between neo-baroque and art nouveau, and decorated by artists who had already worked on the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II: the Umbrian sculptor Adolfo Cozza, the Roman sculptor Adolfo Apolloni, Giuseppe Mazzoni, and Lemmo Rossi-Scotti from Perugia.
Inside, in the Sala del Parlamentino, we can admire L'agricoltura dalle epoche barbariche fino ai tempi della Roma Imperiale (Agriculture from the Barbarian Ages to the Times of Imperial Rome) and I grandi navigatori, gli astronomi e i nasturalisti dal secolo XIII al XVIII (The Great Navigators, Astronomers and Nasturalists from the 13th to 18th Centuries) by Cozza; in the Sala Gialla (Yellow Room), Il trionfo di Cerere (The Triumph of Ceres) followed by the corteggio delle nazioni (Procession of Nations) by Lemmo Rossi-Scotti. The façade is characterised by three large arches with semi-columns leading to an elegant atrium. Along the axis of the façade, on two levels, are two fountains: the first is set within simple balustrades and the second, 8 metres lower, is set within a niche decorated with tuff rock elements.
After the institute was dissolved and absorbed into the FAO, the villa returned to the State and in 1958 was assigned to the CNEL (National Council for Economy and Labour).