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Standing on the slopes of the Gianicolo, Villa Sciarra is encircled within the Gianicolesi walls, via Calandrelli and via Dandolo, between the districts of Trastevere and Monteverde Vecchio. In ancient times there was a lot of vegetable and normal gardens, and the sacred wood of the Furrina nymph. Then, it became part of the huge green space called “Horti Caesaris”, where, according to the legend, Emperor Giulio Cesare hosted Queen Cleopatra during her stay in Rome. Upon Caesar’s death, the “Horti” were inherited by the Roman people.

The first structure was built in the XV Century, inside a vineyard belonging to the Church of Santa Maria ad martyres.
In 1575, the estate became the property of Monsignor Innocenzo Malvasia, who built a two-story hunting-lodge with a loggia. In 1614, a contractor working for the Pontifical Customs – Gaspare Rivaldi – bought this property, then it was owned by Antonio Barberini, who took care of a major renovation.

The villa was then briefly owned by the Ottoboni Family, and in 1746 the Barberinis bought it again – namely Costanza Barberini, wife of Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra. In the meantime, the whole property was expanded, and by the early XIX Century, it stretched over the whole Gianicolo and Monteverde areas, between the Aurelian and the new Gianicolesi walls.

In 1849, the villa was ravaged by Italian troops led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, fighting the French ones of General Oudinot, thus suffering some serious damage.
Then, the new owner, Prince Maffeo II Sciarra, lost his entire wealth: the land was divided into several lots and a portion of it became available for building. The villa and the upper part of the Janiculum remained the property of the Sciarra Family, but in turn, they sold it to George Clarke, in 1896, and then to the Credito e Industria Fondiaria Edilizia Society.

Eventually, in 1902, George Wurts and his extremely wealthy wife Henriette Tower became the new owners and took care of renovating the building with neo-renaissance style and modify the garden. In the latter, some statues and fountains of the XVIII Century appeared – they were actually bought here from the Visconti di Brignano Castle, an abode of the Visconti Family in Lombardia Region. Many exotic species were planted as well, including Gingko biloba, cedars, and thickets. Many peacocks were put inside the garden so that the villa became known as “the villa of the white peacocks”.

In 1928, following the Wurts’ demise and gratitude towards the city of Rome, the villa was given to the Italian Government, to be exclusively turned into a public park. Thus, only the main building was reserved for the Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici and remodeled accordingly, in 1932, by architects Calza Bini e De Renzi.

THE GARDEN

At the main gate, on Piazzale Wurts, you will find the Faunetti Fountain, a rock ensemble from Lombardia Region dating back to the XVIII-XIX century, featuring by two small fauns playing with a goat. At the other entrance, on Largo Minutilli, there is the monumental Faun Fountain, with two adult creatures and their siblings, shouldering an open shell. In the open space in front of the building, visitors can admire two other fountains: Fontana delle Passioni Umane or Fontana dei Vizi – with four sphinxes representing human passions or vices (Wrath, Lust, Greed and Gluttony) inside an ovoid masonry tub with travertine edges – and Fontana dei Putti or del Biscione, consisting of a mixed tank with an espalier as a background, on which two pairs of cherubs stretch their hands to each other in a dance stance; other two, close the center of the tank, hold a shield with the Visconti coat-of-arms (Biscione).
Just as beautiful are the romantic pavilion called Gloriette, and the arboreal exedra with a laurel hemicycle (Laurus nobilis), hosting 12 statues representing each month of the year, interspersed with box hedges and bushes with geometric and animal shapes.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)