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This orange garden is actually what Savello Park is usually called – a natural reserve on the Aventino Hill, Ripa quarter, Rome, stretching for some 7.700 square meters.

It was originally designed in 1932 by Raffaele De Vico, featuring a strongly symmetrical layout and where a fort and the nearby church of Saint Sabina it used to be. The fort itself had been erected before by the Savelli Family, between 1285 and 1285, on the remains of a X century castle by the Crescenzi Family.
The Orange Garden name comes from the very tree planted by Saint Domenico in 1203, in the nearby cloister of Saint Sabina – today, bitter orange trees (Citrus aurantium) are still growing thanks to the exclusive use of original suckers from the first plant. The cloister can be observed through a hole in the wall of the church portico.

The park is crossed by a median road aligned with the belvedere, which leads to two openings: in the right one there used to be the fountain built for Piazza Montanara by Giacomo della Porta, which was then moved to Piazza S. Simeone ai Coronari in 1973. The fountain now features a Roman granite thermal bath, embellished with bas-relief handles, and a monumental 16th-century marble mask, nested in a large shell.

In 1937, the main entrance in Piazza S. Pietro d’Illiria was enriched with a portal from Villa Balestra, on via Flaminia. In 2005, the whole park underwent a thorough restoration of the vegetation.

Entrance to the garden: piazza Pietro d’Illiria, via di S. Sabina, and clivio di Rocca Savella.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)