Description
Villa Borghese is Rome's great park, 80 hectares of green above the Pincio, among tree-lined avenues, little lakes, fountains and museums. It is the green lung where you can stroll between one visit and the next.
It has nine entrances, among them the one at Porta Pinciana, the one from the ramps of the Pincio at Piazza del Popolo and the monumental one at Piazzale Flaminio. You can also enter from the Trinità dei Monti staircase.
In the middle of the Garden of the Lake stands the Temple of Aesculapius, a small neoclassical temple on the pond, built at the end of the 1700s along with other mock temples in the park.
From the Pincio, the panoramic terrace, you get the famous view over the rooftops of Rome. In Piazza di Siena, in the park, the international horse show is held.
The villa also houses museums: the Galleria Borghese, in the cardinal's palace, with Bernini and Caravaggio, the Carlo Bilotti Museum, the Bioparco, the National Gallery of Modern Art, born for the 1911 exhibition, and even an Elizabethan theater, the Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of the one in London. Just outside the boundary, at the foot of the hill, Villa Giulia houses the Etruscan Museum.
At the start of the 1600s a very rich cardinal decided to give himself the largest garden built in Rome since ancient times. His name was Scipione Borghese, he was the pope's nephew, and he knew how to pick artists: among them was the young Bernini.
So was born a "villa of delights," with a palace, Italian gardens and water features. At the end of the 1700s Marcantonio IV added the Garden of the Lake with its little temples, and in the 1800s most of the park became an English garden.
The twist came in 1901. Rome's great patrician villas were being parceled out, but the State bought Villa Borghese and in 1903 gave it to the city, open to all. Officially it was called Villa Umberto I, but the Romans never stopped calling it Borghese.
The park has a soul of small buildings and museums: the Casino del Graziano, in the Valley of the Plane Trees, the Casina delle Rose, now the House of Cinema, the Orangery with the Carlo Bilotti Museum and the Fortezzuola with the Pietro Canonica Museum. In the Garden of the Lake, besides Aesculapius, there are the temples of Antoninus and Faustina and of Diana.
Respighi dedicated a piece of his symphonic poem "The Pines of Rome" to the villa's pines.
Don't miss
• The Temple of Aesculapius.
• The terrace of the Pincio.
• The Galleria Borghese.
• Piazza di Siena.
• The Bioparco.
Did you know?
• The Cinema dei Piccoli, in the park, is considered the smallest movie theater in the world.
• The villa's Globe Theatre is a reconstruction of the London one, opened in 2003.
• The State bought the villa in 1901 for 3 million lire of the time.
It has nine entrances, among them the one at Porta Pinciana, the one from the ramps of the Pincio at Piazza del Popolo and the monumental one at Piazzale Flaminio. You can also enter from the Trinità dei Monti staircase.
In the middle of the Garden of the Lake stands the Temple of Aesculapius, a small neoclassical temple on the pond, built at the end of the 1700s along with other mock temples in the park.
From the Pincio, the panoramic terrace, you get the famous view over the rooftops of Rome. In Piazza di Siena, in the park, the international horse show is held.
The villa also houses museums: the Galleria Borghese, in the cardinal's palace, with Bernini and Caravaggio, the Carlo Bilotti Museum, the Bioparco, the National Gallery of Modern Art, born for the 1911 exhibition, and even an Elizabethan theater, the Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of the one in London. Just outside the boundary, at the foot of the hill, Villa Giulia houses the Etruscan Museum.
At the start of the 1600s a very rich cardinal decided to give himself the largest garden built in Rome since ancient times. His name was Scipione Borghese, he was the pope's nephew, and he knew how to pick artists: among them was the young Bernini.
So was born a "villa of delights," with a palace, Italian gardens and water features. At the end of the 1700s Marcantonio IV added the Garden of the Lake with its little temples, and in the 1800s most of the park became an English garden.
The twist came in 1901. Rome's great patrician villas were being parceled out, but the State bought Villa Borghese and in 1903 gave it to the city, open to all. Officially it was called Villa Umberto I, but the Romans never stopped calling it Borghese.
The park has a soul of small buildings and museums: the Casino del Graziano, in the Valley of the Plane Trees, the Casina delle Rose, now the House of Cinema, the Orangery with the Carlo Bilotti Museum and the Fortezzuola with the Pietro Canonica Museum. In the Garden of the Lake, besides Aesculapius, there are the temples of Antoninus and Faustina and of Diana.
Respighi dedicated a piece of his symphonic poem "The Pines of Rome" to the villa's pines.
Don't miss
• The Temple of Aesculapius.
• The terrace of the Pincio.
• The Galleria Borghese.
• Piazza di Siena.
• The Bioparco.
Did you know?
• The Cinema dei Piccoli, in the park, is considered the smallest movie theater in the world.
• The villa's Globe Theatre is a reconstruction of the London one, opened in 2003.
• The State bought the villa in 1901 for 3 million lire of the time.