Giuseppe Vasi's Digression - Frascati - part two: the Villas

In this page:
Villa Aldobrandini (or Belvedere or Pamphilj)
Villa Lancellotti
Villa Falconieri
In the next page: Villa Mondragone, Villa Parisi, Villa Grazioli, Villa Torlonia and other villas.

The villas of Frascati were all built in a relatively short time frame from 1550 to 1620, although some of them were modified later on.
In 1550 a monsignor Ruffini selected a spot above Frascati for his villa and he was followed by the most important Roman families: Altemps, Aldobrandini (Clemens VIII), Boncompagni (Gregorius XIII), Montalto (Sixtus V), Borghese (Paulus V), Colonna all rushed to build or buy a villa in Frascati. Today some of the villas belong to the municipalities of Grottaferrata or Monte Porzio Catone, but in line with the traditional approach they are all discussed in this page.

1620 engraving showing the villas of Frascati

The villas soon became an addition to the monuments of modern Rome and were portrayed in paintings and engravings. In general all the villas were façing Rome so that the guests could see the Roman campagna, the ruins of the aqueducts and in the distance Rome, signalled by the dome of St. Peter's.

Villa Aldobrandini

Villa Aldobrandini
Villa Aldobrandini was built at the beginning of the XVIIth century and it was designed by Giacomo della Porta and Carlo Maderno. It is a very imposing building, its size being emphasized by the terraces upon which it rests and it is clearly visible from Rome.

View of Villa Aldobrandini (below the red line) from S. Pietro in Montorio; in the foreground S. Sabina

Villa Aldobrandini is not however a casino with many rooms because it does not have an inner courtyard: there are only "rooms with a view" either towards Rome or towards the cascades and the fountains behind the casino. It was used in summer and the landlords and their guests spent the day and the evening in the gardens and not indoors.

Fountains in Villa Aldobrandini

The design of the fountains attracted a lot of attention: they had to please both the eye and the ear and the cascades of Villa Aldobrandini were renowned because they activated some musical instruments held by statues portrayed in the act of playing them. The complex of fountains, niches, statues was called Teatro delle Acque (Water Theatre). In addition to the cascades, Villa Aldobrandini has both very elegant and formal fountains and more surprising "monstruos" fountains hidden in the rocks of the park. As the painter Federico Zuccari contributed to the decoration of the casino, maybe he suggested these strange faces which are very similar to those which decorate the windows of his own palace in Rome. Other views of Villa Aldobrandini can be seen in a page dedicated to pope Clemens VIII Aldobrandini. The image used as a background for this page shows a detail of the XVIIIth century decoration at the entrance of Villa Aldobrandini (an iron lily designed by Gabriele Valvassori).

Villa Lancellotti


Villa Lancellotti
Villa Lancellotti is also known as Villa Piccolomini as it belonged to this family for more than two hundred years. The façade of the casino shows a simple late Renaissance design, while its central part was modified in the XVIIth century. Unlike most of the other villas it is not surrounded by a large garden, but what its garden lacks in size, it has in elegance.

Teatro delle Acque of Villa Lancellotti
Villa Falconieri


Gates of Villa Falconieri
At the beginning of the XVIIth century Cardinal Scipione Borghese planned to open a new road which would link Rome with his possessions near Frascati. The road was never completed but the gate at its Frascati end (Portale delle Armi, which is shown in the next page) became a benchmark for the gates of the other villas.
In 1733 cardinal Alessandro Falconieri thought to give to his villa an entrance (image on the left) comparable with Portale delle Armi, but in the years during which the property did not care about the villa a tree blocked the alley leading to the casino. The image on the right shows the already existing gates of Villa Falconieri.

Villa Falconieri
The casino was initially built by monsignor Ruffini in 1549 and thus it is also called Villa la Rufina. It was acquired by the Falconieri in 1628 and the casino was entirely rebuilt in the late 1660s. In general its design is attributed to Francesco Borromini who worked for the Falconieri. The casino was recently repainted with light blue colours.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Tusculo antico oggi Frascati città Dodici miglia lungi da Roma, camminando per la strada fuori della porta s. Giovanni, fu quell'insigne città, fabbricata sull'eminente collina da Telegone figliuolo di Ulisse e di Circe per collocarvi la sua regia. Prese un tal nome forse da' Toscani, che l'ingrandirono, o da Greci, che ve lo imposero per la difficoltà del salirvi; e fu di tal maniera forte, che in essa ricoverossi Tarquinio Superbo ultimo Re discacciato, da' Romani; donde nacque poi la fierissima guerra tra' Latini, e i Romani, e non cessò fin a tanto, che quella città non rimanesse spianata fino al suolo con tutte le sue magnificenze. Non per questo fu dipoi abbandonata, anzi più gloriosa risorse per opera de' medesimi Romani, i quali la illustrarono con magnificenze più insigni, vedendosi in quell'angolo del colle verso tramontana le diroccate mura; ed il famoso Tusculo di M. Cicerone, in cui aveva aperta per suo trattenimento letterario una accademia, che fu la più fiorita di tutta l'Europa, concorrendovi tutti i maggiori letterati di Roma e del Mondo ancora: onde Tusculane si dissero quelle questioni e quesiti, che in un picciolo, ma prezioso volume si gode, formato in quelle delizie dal Principe della Romana eloquenza. In quell'altra parte del colle verso Oriente fu la famosa villa di Lucullo, e dove si vedano sparse a mucchi le pietre su il vecchio sepolcro de' Furj, e la regia di Tarquinio suddetto. Mutò nome e sito quell'insigne città circa l'anno 1191. quando nuovamente distrutta da Romani per le insolenze usate colla Sede Apostolica da' suoi cittadini, i quali poi non sapendo dove ricoverarsi scesero nel basso incontro a Roma costruendo diverse casette e capanne di legno coperte di rami, di frondi, e frasche, dalle quali la nuova città prese il none rurale di Frascati. Dipoi riconosciuta la salubrità dell'aria, e l'amenità del sito, principiò la nobiltà Romana a farci le sue villeggiature: perciò vi furono erette de' magnifici casini, e maravigliose ville con deliziosissime fontane, e viali amenissimi, fra le quali tiene il primo luogo quella di Belvedere posta dinanzi alla porta di questa città, e quella di Mondragone eretta da Paolo V. Borghese; dipoi la Taverna, la Conti, la Rufina, la Boncompagni, la Odescalchi ed altre, che con più facilità riuscirà il vederle, che con brevità quì descriverle:

Go to page two.

Next step in your tour of the Environs of Rome: Grottaferrata

See my Home Page on Baroque Rome or my Home Page on Rome in the footsteps of an XVIIIth century traveller.