Villa Falconieri - Frascati
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Villa Falconieri, originally known as “La Rufina”, was the first of the Ville Tuscolane, a series of villas built by papal families in the hills around Frascati.
Built on the site of a Roman villa between 1540 and 1549 by Alessandro Rufini, bishop of Melfi, the villa changed hands many times, until it was bought by Orazio Falconieri in 1623 who had the entire project developed and extended by Borromini.
The rebuilt palace has a central unit flanked by two large wings.
The splendid Borromini façade is distinctive for its arched motif which lend elegance and lightness to its architecture.
The interiors were entirely frescoed between the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th C. Carlo Maratta, a very important figure of Roman Baroque painting, was responsible for the “Birth of Venus” on the entrance hall ceiling.
The mythological allegories of the seasons depicted on the vaults of four other rooms are the work of Ciro Ferri.
On the ceiling of the “Spring Hall” we find Ferri’s “Triumph of the Flora”, while the frescoes on the walls are by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi (a pupil of Carracci’s).
The illusion of finding oneself in an actual garden is accentuated by the exquisite marble fountain placed in the middle of the room.
Most of the pictorial decoration however were carried out by Pier Leone Ghezzi in 1727. To the same period we owe the landscaping of the wonderful Italianate garden and park with fishing pond, a large rectangular pool surrounded by cypresses.
In 1959 the villa became and is still to this day the premises of the European Centre for Education.
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