Villa Strohl Fern

This villa was built between 1879 and the end of the nineteenth century by the Alsatian nobleman Alfred Wilhelm Strohl, who was exiled from his homeland after the Franco-Prussian war.
Little is known of his involvement in the construction of the villa, but he probably was directly responsible for the layout of the large, well-structured Park, as this was planned with the particular aim of creating a universe within itself, and is a rare example in Rome of a romantic garden. The entrance is flanked by false stalactites and water spouts, and the Neogothic buildings and elegant, two-storey chalets are reminiscent of nineteenth-century German style. Everything is set in a park with attractive views and archaeological finds laid out along the avenues. The park also boasts artificial “natural” features such as cement trees, fountains adorned with stalactites, fish pools, false grottoes (and real ones), covered bridges between sections of land at different levels, and an artificial lake with a cement boat on its bank. The villa became a refuge for Italian and foreign artists, who lived in the studies Strohl built: the one used by Francesco Trombadori has been conserved. On Strohl Fern’s death, he left explicit instructions that the property pass to the French State. Since 1957 it has been the home of the René Chateaubriand school.