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Villa Sciarra introduces itself through a peculiar cast of characters. A sphinx rests one paw on a skull, satyrs carry giant shells, and a child rides a stone turtle. The figures look ancient, although most are eighteenth-century garden sculptures that once stood on a Lombard estate.
George Washington Wurts, a retired American diplomat, and his wife, Henrietta Tower, assembled much of this mythological landscape in the early twentieth century. Earlier owners and the battle for Rome in 1849 shaped the estate before financial collapse and a politically complicated donation changed it again.
Today Villa Sciarra is a free neighbourhood park where palms, laurels, fountains, and shaded paths surround an unusual open-air collection. It rarely appears on standard sightseeing itineraries, even though its sculptures reward anyone willing to look at their attributes and follow the stories connecting them.
On the Lower Slopes of the Janiculum
Villa Sciarra occupies about seven hectares on the lower slopes of Janiculum Hill. It lies within historic Trastevere, beside the seventeenth-century Janiculum Walls. Monteverde Vecchio begins nearby, so Romans often describe the park as being between the two neighbourhoods.
The setting feels very different from the better-known Janiculum promenade. Curving paths climb through palms and evergreen trees, with benches and small clearings along the way. Local residents come to walk dogs or read. Children use the open spaces. Sculptures appear beside the paths or emerge through foliage without barriers around them.
Many visitors pass individual figures without realising that they belong to a connected programme. Seasons, rural work, classical mythology, and the woodland world of Pan recur throughout the garden.
Five Centuries of Owners and Damage
The documented history of the estate begins in 1575, when Monsignor Innocenzo Malvasia acquired land here and built the Casino Malvasia. Under Pope Urban VIII, the new Janiculum Walls brought the property inside Rome’s enlarged defences. Construction lasted from 1642 to 1644 and increased the value of the land as an urban villa.
The estate passed through the Barberini and Ottoboni families before reaching the Sciarra branch of the Barberini, which gave the park its present name. During the early eighteenth century, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni developed the gardens, cultivated fruit trees and exotic plants, and sponsored excavations in the area. The Sciarra family later enlarged the property.
Its position beside the walls became dangerous in 1849. Republican troops led by Giuseppe Garibaldi defended the Janiculum against the French army sent to restore papal rule. The fighting badly damaged the Casino Barberini and the adjacent Casino Malvasia. That battle is reconstructed nearby inside the Museum of the Roman Republic at Porta San Pancrazio.
Prince Maffeo II Sciarra eventually lost the estate after unsuccessful financial speculation. Much of its land was divided into building plots. The present park is the surviving core of a property that once extended considerably farther across the hillside.
How the Wurts Created the Present Garden
On 15 May 1902, George Washington Wurts and Henrietta Tower purchased the remaining villa. They renovated the Casino Barberini, reshaped the grounds in a neo-Baroque style, built a neo-Gothic castelletto, and kept white peacocks in a large iron aviary. The birds inspired the estate’s old nickname, the “Villa of the White Peacocks.”
The couple’s most distinctive contribution came from northern Italy. They acquired eighteenth-century sandstone sculptures from the former Visconti property at Brignano Gera d’Adda, near Bergamo, and arranged them throughout their Roman garden.
Their origin explains the park’s unusual character. These weathered figures are Lombard Baroque garden ornaments in a Roman setting. The Wurts placed some in newly invented compositions and preserved one imported fountain as a complete ensemble.
George Wurts died in 1928. Henrietta transferred the villa to Benito Mussolini in 1930 on the condition that the garden become a public park. The Casino Barberini later became the home of the Italian Institute of Germanic Studies, founded in 1932 and still based in the building.
The plaque on the Casino records that transition and the later dispute over its memory. Its original text stated that Henrietta Wurts Tower “offered this villa to the Duce of Italy, Benito Mussolini.” It also credited him with opening the garden to the people of Rome and dedicating the building to scholarship in Goethe’s name. The date, 3 April 1932, marked the centenary of Goethe’s death. The Roman numeral X indicates the tenth year of the Fascist era.
The words al Duce and Benito Mussolini were later chiselled out. The dark lettering visible in the photograph is the work of vandals who have periodically rewritten the erased words. In its damaged state, the plaque preserves evidence of both the Fascist dedication and its post-war rejection.
Decoding the Imported Fountains
The fountain in front of the Casino Barberini is known as the Fontana delle Sfingi, the Fountain of the Vices, or the Fountain of Human Passions. Four female-headed sphinxes embody Anger, Lust, Greed, and Gluttony. They represent four of the traditional seven deadly sins.
Their attributes identify them. Anger places a paw on a skull. Lust rests on flowers. Greed guards a cornucopia spilling coins. Gluttony sits among fruit and raises a piece towards her mouth. The bodies face outwards while the heads turn towards one another in pairs. This circular arrangement turns the fountain into a moral puzzle.
Another curious group is usually called the Fontana della Tartaruga, or Turtle Fountain. A putto sits astride an enormous turtle while a young faun climbs beside him.
The rider is a putto, the familiar chubby infant figure of Renaissance and Baroque art. His small companion belongs to the woodland family of fauns and satyrs. No reliable surviving explanation assigns the scene to a specific myth, so it is best understood as an eighteenth-century garden fantasy.
At the Fountain of the Putti, the creature on the shield is often mistaken for a dragon. It is the biscione, the crowned serpent associated with the Visconti family of Milan. A small human figure appears inside its open jaws, just as it does in Milanese heraldry.
Two putti emerging from dolphins support the shield, while other children dance along the curved stonework. The emblem reveals the sculpture’s northern Italian origin more clearly than any other detail in the park.
The serpent appears again at the Fountain of the Satyrs. Satyrs and young satyrs support an immense shell, and a putto emerges from the biscione above them.
Rome’s official catalogue states that this fountain was reconstructed in its entirety after its transfer from the Visconti villa. Other imported figures received new positions and architectural settings. The Fontana dei Satiri therefore offers the clearest impression of how one complete ensemble looked before leaving Lombardy.
Goat legs, pointed ears, pipes, children, and animals recur across the collection. They belong to the world of Pan, the god associated with shepherds, wild places, music, fertility, and outdoor pleasure. One standing satyr raises a large vessel above his head. His body is muscular and human above the waist, while his legs and hooves reveal his animal nature.
Near an entrance, two young satyrs wrestle and play with a goat across a rockwork fountain. Rome’s description connects the scene with a programme centred on seasons and mythology, especially the world of Pan. Woodland life appears here as noisy physical play.
Moss, stains, missing details, and surrounding vegetation make the sandstone bodies appear to be returning to the landscape they represent. A major restoration programme completed its first phase in July 2025. Conservators cleaned and stabilised the Fontana dei Satiri, the Fontana dei Putti, and several other groups, while treating damaged stone, metal fittings, and fountain basins.
Three Myths in Sandstone
Several freestanding groups turn episodes from classical mythology into outdoor theatre. Their subjects become easier to identify once you follow the visual clues around each figure. These sculptures came from Brignano Gera d’Adda and were designed to be read from several angles in a garden, where changing light and real foliage become part of the scene around them. Each rewards a slow walk around it.
Apollo and Daphne
Apollo pursues the nymph Daphne, who raises her arms as the transformation that will save her begins. Villa Sciarra’s damaged sandstone group presents an independent eighteenth-century treatment of the episode.
The celebrated Apollo and Daphne at the Borghese Gallery captures the instant when skin becomes bark and fingers become leaves. Villa Sciarra’s group is rougher and more theatrical. It was made for an outdoor setting and reads especially well against real foliage.
Pan and Syrinx
The pursuit of Syrinx belongs to the same family of stories. The nymph escapes Pan by becoming marsh reeds. He cuts them and makes the pipes that bear his name. The sculptural group places the goat-legged god beside Syrinx and the plants that contain the ending of the myth.
Seen after the playful young satyrs and goat, this scene introduces a more troubling side of Pan’s world. Its music begins with pursuit and loss.
Diana and Endymion
The group with a seated man, a standing woman, and a dog is identified as Endymion and Diana. Endymion was a beautiful shepherd and hunter placed in eternal sleep. Greek tradition usually names his divine visitor as Selene, the Moon, while later art often merges her lunar identity with Diana.
The dog identifies Diana’s hunting world and distinguishes the group from an ordinary pastoral couple. Like the other large sandstone compositions, it came from the Visconti property at Brignano Gera d’Adda.
A Park I Know in Every Season
I lived for years in Monteverde Vecchio and have walked through Villa Sciarra dozens of times in every season. I still return. The photographs below were taken in summer and late November. Summer brings dry grass and hard Mediterranean light. By late autumn, wet stone, darker foliage, and cold air change the mood completely. The fountains and mythological figures remain worth seeing throughout the year.
On a first trip centred on Rome’s major ancient sites and museums, Villa Sciarra can wait. It makes more sense when you are staying in Trastevere or Monteverde Vecchio, want an hour away from traffic, enjoy unusual sculpture, or are already walking up the Janiculum.
From the park, a longer route can continue towards Porta San Pancrazio, the monumental Fontana dell’Acqua Paola, and the viewpoint at Piazzale Garibaldi.
Allow about an hour for the park itself. Start at the Casino Barberini and identify the four sphinxes by their attributes. Then look for the child inside the Visconti serpent’s jaws and follow the recurring stories of pursuit through the three major mythological groups. That simple sequence turns a pleasant neighbourhood garden into a readable collection.
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