Villa Gabrielli al Gianicolo

History

Originally, the large villa occupied almost the entire northern portion of the Janiculum. Gardens and orchards already existed on the site before the property acquired a unitary character. This occurred towards the end of the eighteenth century, when Prince Pietro Gabrielli of Prossedi (1747–1824) hired the architect Francesco Rust to restore the casino (villa house) and design its surrounding park. The latter, known for its size and beauty, was a frequent destination on the Grand Tour because it enjoyed an unblocked panorama of the whole city and had a particularly scenic view of the dome of St. Peter's. The villa's pine-lined avenue, a remnant of a former Baroque garden, was particularly famous. It was these pines which may have inspired the third movement of Ottorino Respighi's tone poem Pines of Rome, which is entitled The Pines of the Janiculum (Pini del Gianicolo).

The period of the villa's greatest beauty and prominence was between 1820 and 1840, when Charlotte Bonaparte Gabrielli was in residence there. Some decadence had already begun in 1849 when the villa became the scene of harsh battles during the siege that ended the Roman Republic. In 1869, by the personal wish of Pope Pius IX, the villa was acquired by the papal administration from the Gabrielli family in order to expand the neighboring asylum of Santa Maria della Pietà. The casino was thus restructured and expanded, and used to accommodate wealthy male retirees.

During the unification of Italy and Papal Rome's fall to Italian republican forces in 1870, the villa became the property of the Provincial Administration of Rome. Over time, other buildings were progressively built into lower-lying areas of the villa's park. In 1913, the asylum was transferred to property outside the city of Rome, and the villa was abandoned.

In 1925, partly thanks to a public fundraiser promoted by the Catholic bishops of the United States, the villa was jointly acquired for 40 million lire by the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide and the Pontifical North American College in order to establish new campuses for their institutions. …