Villa Mondragone

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View of the Villa Mondragone from Tusculum
Villa Mondragone

The Villa Mondragone is the largest Tusculan country house of the 16th century. It belongs to the municipality of Monte Porzio Catone , about 30 kilometers east of Rome .

Building history

The building complex, situated elevated on a hill, belongs to a group of villas along the Via Tuscolana between Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone. The villa dominates an 18 hectare park-like area.

In 1567 Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps (Markus Sittikus von Hohenems) acquired the Villa Angelina located on the site from Ranuccio Farnese , a rather modest building in terms of dimensions, which was later renamed Villa Tusculana , and finally, after the construction of Villa Mondragone, only still called old villa ( villa Vecchia ). Initially, Altemps had the existing villa extended by the architects Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola and Martino Longhi the Elder . After this work was completed in 1571, Cardinal Ugo Buoncompagni, who later became Pope Gregory XIII, stayed there. for a long time.

Cardinal Buoncompagni suggested building another larger villa on the ruins of the villa dei Quintili from 151 AD. Martino Longhi took care of the planning. Altemps, a staunch supporter of the cardinal, had the symbols of dragons present in the coat of arms of the Buoncompagni family incorporated into numerous parts of the building's outer facade and used in the garden design. The Villa Mondragone owes its name to these striking dragon images.

Around 1613 Scipione Borghese , a nephew of Pope Paul V , acquired the two villas and the property belonging to them from Count Gian Angelo Altemps, the nephew of Cardinal Altemps for the proud price of 300,000 scudi. Such a country estate in Frascati was an indispensable status symbol alongside a Roman city villa. The Borghese family resided there for the spring and autumn months of the so-called villeggiatura . He had the Villa Mondragone and the outdoor facilities significantly expanded between 1616 and 1618. Scipio Borghese commissioned the Flemish architect Jan van Santen (Giovanni Vasanzio) for this, with the aim of transforming the modest summer house into a gigantic building structure. The large, square courtyard, whose design is based on the courtyards of French residences, goes back to van Santen.

The prestige object was used by high church dignitaries on various occasions during the expansion and for several years after its completion.

At the beginning of 1865 Marcantonio Borghese , (presumably) the last owner of the property from the Borghese family, leased the property to the Jesuit order , who opened a training center there in February 1865 ("Nobile Collegio Mondragone"). In 1896 the Jesuits bought the Villa Mondragone as their property.

The Jesuit college in the Villa Mondragone ceased operations in 1953. In 1981 the Jesuits sold the property to its current owner, the University of Rome (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata), who undertook extensive renovations. The university now uses the property as a modern conference venue not far from Rome.

The complex of the villa consists of a main building, at the rear of which there is a large inner courtyard, which is bordered on the left by a gallery building that now houses the library and is open on the right to the garden. Opposite the main building, at the rear of the inner courtyard, there is another large building which today houses the conference rooms.

The interior decoration of the villa consisting of frescoes, reliefs and sculptures has largely been preserved, for example in the hall of the caryatids and in the red hall as well as in the St George's chapel.

The fontana dei draghi (dragon fountain ) and the giardino segreto as well as the entrance gate have been preserved in the gardens .

use

The Villa Mondragone, regardless of its architectural history, can be associated with at least two historical events:

  • The on Pope Gregory XIII. The Gregorian calendar traceable was ratified in 1582 on the premises of Villa Mondragone.
  • In 1912 the American bookseller Wilfrid Michael Voynich is said to have bought a strange document, the so-called “ Voynich Manuscript ”, later named after him , from the Jesuits of the Villa Mondragone.

swell

Rome, Archivio Provinciale dei Padri Gesuiti (APPG)

  • Sig. 586/60 Bencivenga: Descizione the consegna del Palazzo di Mondragone nelle Ville Tuscolane spettante a HE il Principe di Solmona D. Paolo Borghese… , 1888.
  • Sig. 586/61 Istromento Compra-Vendita Vila Mondragone fatta dal Principe Borghese , 1896.

Vatican, Archivio Segreto Vaticano (ASV)

  • Sig. AB 341 Plan of the Villa Mondragone, ca.1840
  • Sig. AB 157, fasc. 149 Plan of the Villa Mondragone, 1887
  • Sig. AB 1192, VII, 22–23 Plans for the restoration of the Villa Mondragone, 1839
  • Sig. AB 1192, XII, 2 Plan of the Villa Mondragone and the farms in ager tusculanus , 18th century
  • Sig.AB 8606, no.57 Luigi Canina : Plan for the restoration of the Villa Mondragone, 1839.

literature

  • Tracy Lee Ehrlich: Landscape and Identity in Early Modern Rome. Villa culture at Frascati in the Borghese era . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-521-59257-7 .
  • Tracy Lee Ehrlich: The Villa Mondragone and the early Seventeenth-Century "Villeggiatura" at Frascati . Dissertation Columbia University, UMI, 1995.
  • Laura Marcucci, Bruno Torresi: Declino e rinascita di Villa Mondragone: progetti, restauri, trasformazioni . In: Quaderni dell'instituto di soria dell'architettura . 1983, pp. 471-490.

See also

Web links

Coordinates: 41 ° 48 ′ 32.8 "  N , 12 ° 41 ′ 48.8"  E