Villa Farnese facts for kids
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The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a huge five-sided house. It is in the town of Caprarola in Northern Lazio, Italy. This amazing building is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north-west of Rome. The powerful House of Farnese family first ordered it to be built and owned it.
Today, the Villa Farnese belongs to the Republic of Italy. It is managed by the Polo Museale del Lazio. Remember, this villa is different from two other famous Farnese family properties in Rome: the Palazzo Farnese and the Villa Farnesina.
The Villa Farnese sits right above the town of Caprarola. It looks out over the whole area. This giant building is a mix of Renaissance and Mannerist styles. It opens towards the Monte Cimini, which are hills covered in thick forests. The villa is built with reddish-gold stone. Strong supports called buttresses hold up its upper floors. The Villa Farnese was a key part of the Farnese family's land. It showed off their power, rather than just being a simple country house or farm.
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History of the Villa Farnese
In 1504, a man named Cardinal Alessandro Farnese bought the land in Caprarola. He later became Pope Paul III. He wanted to build a strong, fortified castle there. Architects like Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Baldassare Peruzzi drew up plans for him.
Peruzzi's drawings show a five-sided design. Each side was angled inwards. This design would help protect the castle from attackers. It would allow defenders to shoot at anyone trying to climb the walls. The plan also included a five-sided courtyard in the middle. The foundations for this five-sided fortress were built between 1515 and 1530. These foundations became the base for the villa you see today. So, the villa's unique shape was decided very early on.
Later, another Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (who was Pope Paul III's grandson) decided to change the partly built fortress. He wanted to turn it into a grand country house. In 1556, he hired Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola as his architect. Building work started in 1559. Vignola continued to work on the villa until he died in 1573.
Cardinal Alessandro Farnese was a polite and educated man. However, the Farnese family became unpopular with the next pope, Pope Julius III. So, Alessandro Farnese decided it was a good idea to leave the Vatican for a while. He chose Caprarola because it was close to Rome but also far enough away. It was the perfect spot for his new country home.
Villa Farnese Design
The Villa Farnese is a fantastic example of Renaissance architecture. Its design uses very few decorations. Instead, it focuses on perfect balance and harmony. This means the villa looks powerful but also fits well with the land around it. This special style is called Mannerism. It was a new way of designing buildings after the earlier High Renaissance period.
Vignola, the architect, was chosen for this challenging location. He had already shown his skill by designing Villa Giulia near Rome. Vignola was greatly inspired by Michelangelo when he was young. For the Villa Farnese, his plans created a five-sided building around a round courtyard. This courtyard has columns all around it.
Courtyard Features
In the courtyard, pairs of Ionic columns stand next to niches. These niches hold busts, which are sculptures of the heads and shoulders, of Roman Emperors. Below them is a rough-looking stone archway. This design was inspired by Donato Bramante's work in Rome. A cool detail is how the top part of the columns (the entablature) sticks out over them. This connects the columns above, even though they stand on separate bases. The inside walkway of the courtyard is covered in frescoes. These paintings show playful grotesques, similar to those in the Vatican.
Royal Stairs
You can reach the gallery and upper floors by five spiral staircases around the courtyard. The most important one is the Scala Regia, which means "Royal Stairs." This beautiful staircase winds up through the main floors of the villa.
Villa Farnese Entrance
You approach the Villa Farnese from the main street of Caprarola. This street leads right to the villa. From a large open area called a piazza, stairs go up to several terraces. The first terrace is a basement level dug out of the soft rock. It has steep, curving steps leading up to it.
Basement and Main Entrance
This basement floor was used as an entrance for carriages when the weather was bad. It has a huge central column and strong supporting walls. On the outside, large, heavily barred doors look like they lead into a fortress's guardrooms. Above them, a curved double staircase with railings leads to the terrace above. This terrace then has another formal double staircase. This leads to the main entrance on the Piano dei Prelati floor.
This floor looks like a strong bastion. It appears as a second ground floor from the outside. Its walls are made of rough stone. The main door is a simple arch with three windows on each side. The corners of the building at this level have massive, solid parts sticking out.
Upper Floors
Above this is the piano nobile, which is a double-height floor. Five huge arched windows stand out on the front of the building above the main door. Above this, there are two more floors for noble guests. Servants lived on the very top floors. Many windows on the outside are separated by decorative stone columns.
Inside the Villa Farnese
The villa has five floors, and each floor was designed for a different purpose. The most important rooms are on the first floor, called the piano nobile. Here, a large central loggia (which is now enclosed with glass) looks out over the town and the countryside. This hall is called the Room of Hercules because of its painted decorations. It was used as a dining hall in the summer. It has a grotto-like fountain with sculpture at one end.
Main Staircases
On either side of the loggia are two round rooms. One is a chapel. The other holds the main staircase, the Scala Regia. This graceful spiral staircase is supported by pairs of Ionic columns. It rises up through three floors and is covered in frescoes by Antonio Tempesta.
Apartments and Frescoes
The two grand apartments on the first floor are perfectly matched in their layout. They complete the enclosure around the courtyard. Each apartment has five rooms. These rooms start with the largest reception hall near the entrance. They then get smaller and more private, leading to a bedroom, wardrobe, and a small study called a studiolo. This organized set of rooms became a standard design for grand houses later on.
The two apartments face different directions. This allowed them to be used for different seasons. The east, or summer, apartment was for active life. The west, or winter, apartment was for quiet, thoughtful life. The two apartments are perfectly balanced. They even have matching parterre gardens. You can reach these gardens by crossing a bridge over the moat. They are cut into the hillside.
The rooms are famous for their Mannerist frescoes. These paintings tell stories and show the glory of the Farnese family. The ideas for the frescoes came from smart people in Farnese's court, like his secretary, Annibale Caro. The paintings show the brave acts of Alexander the Great and, of course, the Farnese family themselves. In the Sala dei Fasti Farnesiani (the Room of Farnese Deeds), painted by the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, the Farnese family is shown at their most glorious moments, from the floor to the decorated ceiling.
Other artists who helped with the frescoes include Giacomo Zanguidi (il Bertoia), Raffaellino da Reggio, Antonio Tempesta, Giacomo del Duca, and Giovanni De Vecchi. Flemish painters Joos van Winghe and Bartholomaeus Spranger also helped il Bertoia.
Room of the World Map
One famous room in the quiet winter apartment is the "Room of the World Map," or Sala del Mappamondo. It shows the entire known world as it was in 1574, when the paintings were finished. Above, the ceiling is painted with the sky, showing the stars and the zodiac constellations.
Villa Farnese Gardens
The gardens of the villa are just as impressive as the building itself. They are a great example of an Italian Renaissance garden. The villa's fortress theme continues with a surrounding moat and three drawbridges. Two sides of the five-sided villa face the two gardens, which are carved into the hill. You can reach each garden by crossing the moat on a drawbridge from the main apartments. Each garden is a parterre garden, with box topiary (shaped bushes) and fountains. There used to be a grotto-like theatre here.
Secret Garden and Casino
A path through the chestnut woods beyond leads to the giardino segreto, or secret garden. This garden has a well-known casino.
The Casino
The Casino is a small, livable summerhouse. It has two loggie for outdoor dining. It was probably built based on designs by Giacomo del Duca. Later changes were made around the casino by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.
You reach the casino by stairs between rough stone grotto walls. In the middle is a catena d'acqua, which is a cascade of water flowing down a channel or 'water-staircase' into a stone basin. At the top of the steps, in an oval space, are large statues of two reclining river gods. They are on either side of a big central vase fountain. Stairs built into the oval walls lead up to the terraced garden in front of the casino's south side. This part of the terrace is lined with stone statues called herms and cypress trees. To the north of the casino is a private garden that steps up slightly and has roses.
Villa Farnese Today
Alessandro Farnese died in 1589. He left his estates to his relatives, the Farnese dukes of Parma. The Cardinal's amazing collection of art was eventually moved to Naples by Charles III of Spain. In the 1800s, the villa was, for a time, the home of the heir to the throne of the newly united Italy.
Parts of the villa's Renaissance gardens have inspired many estate gardens in the 19th and 20th centuries. Landscape designers like Beatrix Farrand, A.E. Hanson, and Florence Yoch used its ideas. Gardens from the 1920s with a catena d'acqua include the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills. 'Las Tejas' in Montecito, California also has a casino, directly inspired by the one at Villa Farnese.
The Villa Farnese in Caprarola even provided the model for The Pentagon building in Washington D.C.
Today, the casino and its gardens are one of the homes of the President of the Italian Republic. The main villa, which is empty and owned by the State, is open to the public. Its many rooms, halls, and grand architecture, with their marble and frescoes, are still as impressive as they were meant to be.
Villa Farnese in Movies and TV
- Several scenes from the TV series Medici: Masters of Florence were filmed at Villa Farnese.
- Some scenes from the 2003 movie Luther were filmed here. You can see the central courtyard and the Scala Regia.
- Scenes of the Vinceguerra Estate in the movie The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (film) were filmed in the gardens of the Villa Farnese.
- The Villa was used to show the inside of the Papal Palace in the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo in the Netflix movie The Two Popes.
- Several major scenes for the 2013 film Romeo and Juliet were filmed at Villa Farnese's Casino (the smaller summerhouse building with gardens).
- The loggia of the casino was used as Juliet's balcony. Romeo and Juliet exchanged their vows of love there. For filming, artificial climbing roses were added to the empty loggia walls for Romeo to climb.
- The casino's southern garden staircase, with its water cascade (catena d'acqua) and fountain, was used for the scene where Romeo and Juliet separate at dawn after their first night together.
See also
- Farnese Atlas
- Grandi Giardini Italiani
