Villa Barberini al Gianicolo

The villa is located on the northern slopes of the Janiculum Hill, almost in the Vatican field, on the same site where residential buildings were built in the first century AD that probably belonged to the same estates of first Caligula and then Nero. Towards the middle of the 16th century, a building already existed in the area, which was then purchased by Cardinal Bonifacio Ferreri on top of older medieval buildings. In 1641, the prefect of Rome, Taddeo Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII Barberini, decided to purchase the villa - in the meantime known as Casino della Palma - and the entire adjoining garden, with the obligation of maintaining a respectful distance from the bastioned walls built in 1542 by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger with the adjacent Porta del Santo Spirito.

The prefect held the villa for only four years, until 1645 when, after his hasty flight from Rome following the election of Innocent X Pamphilj, he died in Paris, France, where he had taken refuge. In 1653 Card. Carlo, Taddeo's son, resumed work on the embellishment of the villa, entrusting it to Bernini and G.B. Contini. The two worked out very interesting proposals for the decoration of the gardens, with avenues, cliffs and fountains, which have since almost completely disappeared. In some rooms it is still possible to see remains of the ancient wall decorations of the time.

From 1863 it was given to the Lungara asylum, which had a long building overlooking the Tiber on the site of the present Tiber embankment and Piazza della Rovere. The position of the villa is quite unusual, located at the corner of one of the mighty sixteenth-century bastions between Porta Cavalleggeri and the overlooking Porta Santo Spirito, containing and fortifying the northernmost foothills of the Janiculum Hill.

The original casino of the villa consisted of a floor plus attic; today the entire complex appears to have been encompassed by the superfetations that took place from the mid-19th century onwards. A watercolour by Ettore Roesler Franz shows us a beautiful view of one of the old entrances to the villa, via a steep and unpaved slope, corresponding today to the present entrance. A comparison shows us a travertine parapet column still in place on the corner, today as in the past. From the garden terrace there is a splendid view of the city. The elevation of the villa, very simple, presents an entrance preceded by a small fountain and two ramps leading to the small atrium behind, decorated in the vault by stucco frames with Barberinian bees. The plan of the building formed an L, whose long slat extended towards the northern side. Here there are some rooms with wooden coffered ceilings with the family emblems, and in the last room a magnificent gallery extends towards the wonderful panorama of Rome. The Gallery is frescoed both on the walls and in the vault, with a large folder in the centre with putti and angels that subtract the papal portfolio of Urban VIII Barberini. At the heads there are other panels with frescoes of the emblems of Card. Francesco and Urbano Barberini, painted in the early 18th century. The gardens originally extended over the entire northern extension of the Janiculum and included a series of parallel axes probably treated with parterres with a large circular open space in the centre, while on the side towards the Vatican there was a beautiful cypress screen with a fountain by Bernini, no longer in place because it was sold.