FIFTH posting -- The Colonna Gardens

FIFTH BLOG POSTING 3 April 2016 

The Colonna Gardens

Greetings from Roma.

We had another splendid Saturday a week ago. That time we left early for our postponed visit to the Palazzo Colonna, and there were no transportation difficulties in arriving. I especially wanted to take the extra tour of their gardens, which we had forgone last year on our previous visit, concentrating instead on the fabulous artworks and architecture inside.

The Colonna family still owns their palace, which is almost two square Chicago city blocks in size, and their gardens, which extend up the Quirinale Hill.

Today I'm going to show you the gardens, with only a fraction of the lovely paintings, frescoes and furnishings inside.

(a reminder--there may be a small link to click on to SEE MORE. There are over 40 photos in this posting. You can skip my blather by clicking on a photo.)

Here's the locator map. The Colonna Palace, their garden and the other views are within this purple oval. The blue arrow is where the Quirinale piazza is, with the adjacent palace that used to be one of the papal summer residences. North is up. 

A 3D Google map!
The Colonna Palace and garden
are within the red box.
The yellow box most likely
was part of their gardens
earlier, because the
monumental entry gate is at the blue arrow.

Detail view of Google 3D map. 

The 1718 monumental gate
(closed off now) to the
Colonna Gardens
atop the Quirinale Hill. 

An impressive entry,
very convenient to the
entry of the Papal Palace,
which is now one of the
official residences of the
President of Italy.

Piazza Quirinale,
with a small part of the
Papal Palace, (right), and the former Papal stables--now a hall for fine art exhibitions (left).
The two massive statues of the horsemen (the Dioscuri semi-divinities who were also brothers of Helen of Troy) in the center were originally in the Baths of Constantine, which were very near here. 

To give you an idea of the "standards of the neighborhood", here are two views of nearby gardens.

A tiny glimpse into the
extensive gardens of
the Quirinale Palace.

A small view into the very private
estate of the Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi, "across the street" from the Colonna gateway.

A view from the early 1900's
of the eastern edge
of the Colonna Gardens. An edge of the Palace is on the left.

A view of the same area,
about a city block further off.
Don't worry, I was crossing
the street on the "WALK" light.
Note-can you spot the open archway on the left,
to the right of a
bright yellow bus' end?

Here's a view of that same archway
from inside the
Colonna Palace.
This is one of their
two main courtyards.   

More of the same courtyard. 

Here's another of their courtyards.

I've blogged about their
collections before but
wanted to give you a
reminder of their
level of style.
(That's scarcely
an adequate word for
this marvelous palace.)
This is Pope Martin V,
Oddone Colonna, 1369-1431.
Again, there are several
books about his ending
the era of schisms
(extra Popes) that arose
at the end of the
Papacy's exile in
southern France.
He also did a great deal
to put Rome back on
its feet after the 67 years
long absence of
the Papal Court.

One of the many Cardinals
over the centuries from
this family.
Girolamo I Colonna
(1604-1666) commissioned
many of the paintings
in the gallery from famous
Bolognese painters
and was the one
who started
the family gallery.

Portrait of Stefano IV Colonna
by Bronzino, done in 1546.(now in the State Museum
of the Barberini Palace) 

Above, The "Hercules Room"
in the ground floor apartments,
(a couple of the other rooms
are shown below)
done up in the 1600's. 

 

The Colonna Gardens

Left, view over one of the bridges to the gardens. 
Below right, a view from that bridge of the street via Pilotta
and the other bridges to the gardens.

This outside wall makes an intriguing start for the garden visit.

A two page drawing of what the undeveloped gardens looked like in the 1500's. This slope of the Quirinale Hill had been part of the ancient baths of Constantine from before 315 AD. Much of the splendid marble decorating the Palace came from these ruins.  

Part of the ancient walls, incorporated into later buildings. The guide said there is a major effort underway to study the remains of the ruins.

When I first heard about the reuse of the ancient marble and stones, I winced. But at least these were saved and not turned into lime for brick mortar as where so many ancient statues and marbles in the medieval era.
One time a guide pointed out that with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, shipping in the Mediterranean became difficult, and there was no way to obtain "fresh" marble and materials for columns, floor and wall decorations. So the ruins were harvested.

The construction of the nearby
 Palazzo Rospigliosi (1605-1621)
is held to have caused
the greatest part of
the destruction of the
remaining ruins of
the Baths of Constantine. 

 

What else is known to have been in the Baths of Constantine?

The bronze statues of boxer and athlete now in the Museo delle Terme, 

the "Torso Belvedere" now in the Vatican Museums, a couple statues of Constantine, one in the porch of St. John Lateran, the others in the Musei Capitolini, et cetera. Don't ask about what was found when the traffic tunnel "Il Trasforo" was dug beneath the Quirinale Hill in the last century, although those finds were not from the Baths of Constantine. However, you'll notice those pieces in the Capitoline and the Palazzo Massimo museums in Rome. 

This is another of the reasons we love Rome, there is so much to see and to discover. But I'm wandering off topic, as usual.

The garden portions on the hill slope
are laid out in lateral terraced areas.
It is probably still a bit soon
to see any flowers outside.
On the left retaining wall are
various fragments of ancient sarcophagi and tombs. 

A door on a pagan sarcophagus usually represents
an entry to
the "Other World".

A view back towards the Palace
from about 1/3 of the way up
the garden slope.

It was a splendid day, and the view
over the rooftops was very fine.
Left is part of the Vittoriano Monument
at the nearby Piazza Venezia.

This water cascade and backdrop
are a highlight of the lower garden. 

No home is complete without
a few ancient deities
and sea-creatures! 

The baroque era mosaic
was redone in the 1900's
and looks grand. 

One of the statues on the
cascade is Dianne,
goddess of the moon
and of hunting.

At the top of the garden is a path along a wall. A gate permits a view into another part of the garden. I don't know if this is still used by the Colonna family or is now part of another parcel, but the monumental gate would be at least a few hundred feet beyond this area.

I stopped sighing after a view
of the rest of the park and
turned around to see this view. That's St. Peter's dome off to
the right. Mid level left is half of the dome of the Pantheon.
The large building stretching across the center is the Jesuit church of St. Ignatius.
There were no funds
left over for a dome,
so they had a fake one
painted inside,
but that is another tale. 

Here's a composite shot of the panorama.

**** End of this posting ****

All photos and text are
© Carol H Johnson, 2016, 
with the exception of the 
web photo of Pope Martin V.