Villa Aldobrandini site features

Villa Aldobrandini spreads over a series of high, regular terraces on the slopes of Monte Tuscolo, with the palace standing on one of them. Its main façade is articulated vertically by pilaster strips and finishes at the centre in a raised section enclosed by an enormous broken pediment. Behind, a double order of galleries faces the garden, with spiral flights of steps.

The nymphaeum and the Water Theatre

The garden's set-piece is the Teatro delle Acque, by Carlo Maderno with Orazio Olivieri -- a large exedra of fountains and terraces on several levels, which the family's own description gives as 2,500 square metres. The inscription running beneath the nymphaeum's balustrade names Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini as the conqueror of Ferrara. To supply it and the rest of the garden, Aldobrandini built an aqueduct eight kilometres long from the Modena Spring on Monte Algido.

The house

A basement holds the cellars and what were the lodgings of the gentlemen in service. Above, a vestibule with a side chapel leads into the great salon that occupies the centre of the floor, with rooms to either side. The floor above once held the quarters of Pietro Aldobrandini's personal staff, and the top floor the guest rooms. The best-known interior is the room of Apollo, or of Parnassus, with multicoloured mosaics, frescoes by Domenichino, and polychrome wooden statues of the Muses, of Pegasus and of Apollo.

Elsewhere there are frescoes by Cavalier d'Arpino and Domenichino, succhi d'erba by Ginesio del Barba -- paintings in plant dyes, which read like woven hangings -- and sculpture including a Clement VIII by Taddeo Landini, who carved many works in St Peter's.

Older ground

The villa sits on the remains of earlier Latin and Roman building; the famous villa of Lucullus is said to have stood here. Large squared blocks of pre-Roman date have been found in the courtyard, probably from an Etruscan-Latin temple. On the grounds there is also a monumental gate by Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri, of the early eighteenth century.

The Teatro delle Acque

Carlo Maderno's and Orazio Olivieri's water theatre: a large exedra of fountains and terraces on several levels, 2,500 square metres by the family's own reckoning, cut into the hillside behind the palace.

The eight-kilometre aqueduct

Built by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini from the Modena Spring on Monte Algido purely to supply the water theatre and the garden.

The inscription under the balustrade

A long text running beneath the nymphaeum's balustrade records the villa's builder as the conqueror of Ferrara -- the service for which Clement VIII handed him the place.

The broken pediment

The main façade rises through pilaster strips to a central raised section closed by an enormous broken pediment: the feature that makes the house read, from down the valley, as the Belvedere.

The room of Apollo

Also called the room of Parnassus: multicoloured mosaics, Domenichino frescoes, and polychrome wooden statues of the Muses, Pegasus and Apollo.

The Bizzaccheri gate

A monumental gate on the grounds by Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri, early eighteenth century -- a late addition to a seventeenth-century composition.

The pre-Roman blocks

Large squared blocks found in the courtyard, probably the remains of an Etruscan-Latin temple. The villa stands on earlier Latin and Roman structures, and the villa of Lucullus is said to have been here.

The axis through the town

The villa is aligned with the cathedral down an axial avenue that continues through Frascati as the Viale Catone. The garden's geometry does not stop at the gates.