Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Awesome Villa Doria Pamphili Park in Rome

By Bruno Namtabi

Villa Doria Pamphili is Rome's largest public landscaped park, with an area of about two square kilometers. Originally owned by the Doria Pamphili family it's named after, this part was purchased by the City of Rome in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

It's a beautiful area that's known as one of the city's best bird watching sites and a great place for a walk or jog.

This area has been around for a long time. Betore 1630 it was called the Villa Veccia, and Panfilo Panfili purchased it and began buying the neighboring vineyards.

This act created a huge holding, standing on the high ground above Rome itself, and providing amazing views of the city. The owner and his family used the villa as their own private suburban resort.

A new villa was begun later, in the 1640s, by the nephew of the then-Pope, Giovanni Battista Pamphili. It took until 1652 to be finished, with the villa itself designed to complement its ancient and contemporary artworks.

You'll find most of the artifacts in the Capitoline Museum today, though there are still some at the site. Visitors to the Villa Doria Pamphili will see an exterior in the busy Baroque style, with alternating niches and windows, as well as Mannerist-type bas relief panels.

Inside, you'll see frescoes depicting Roman history and even more Bas reliefs. Around the exterior there are gardens, first laid out around 1650 and creating a sequence of connected areas surrounding the villa and the lower levels. Statuary was once placed here, but much of this area is now grassed.

Concerts of music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are still held at the Villa Doria Pamphili, in the Giardino del Teatro. Other features were added later, including gateways and fountains, making the gardens a truly complex and beautiful area.

Most gardens around the villa are currently planted in a sixteenth century style, and have closely cut greenery and wide walks covered in gravel. Roman tombs were once found on this site, but through the centuries, all have been excavated.

If you visit this lush park, you may be surprised to learn that it was once a site of violence - during the short lived nineteenth century Roman Republic, hand to hand fighting broke out in the fortified villas on the city outskirts, including at the Villa Doria Pamphili. However, this region survived while other neighboring villas were nearly destroyed.

The villa's owner then took advantage of his neighbors' misfortune, buying up their property and expanding his holdings even more. Surviving structures on these pieces of land host art exhibits and more.

If you're on a trip to Rome, you should definitely include a trip to this fantastic Roman park in your plans. The Villa Doria Pamphili is something that every tourist in Rome should see.

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