Villa Falconieri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Villa Falconieri is a villa in Frascati, Italy.
The villa was originally called Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Rufini. Later it was enlarged thanks to Pope Paul III , dates back to 1546. In 1628 Orazio Falconieri purchased the villa and commissioned Francesco Borromini its renovation.
Important artists and architects worked in, such as Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Borromini. The interior houses frescoes by Pier Leone Ghezzi, Giacinto Calandrucci, Ciro Ferri, Nicolò Berrettoni and others.
The park is a splendid Italian gardens enlarged in the 17th century, with suggestive little lake bordered by cypresses created in the 18th century.
Later the Villa was bought by the German composer Felix Jacob Ludwig Mendelsshon Bartholdy, who gave it as a gift to Kaiser Wilhelm II. Here the german writer Richard Voss wrote the novel Villa Falconieri in 1896. For this reason Villa Falconieri was always dear to German community of Rome.
At the end of the First World War, the Villa was confiscated for use by Italian State.
Villa Falconieri was damaged by the bombing (1943-1944) but masterly work restored the ancient splendor. Now Villa Falconieri seat of the European Centre for the Education (CEDE) and INVALSI.
