The Palazzo Farnese or Villa Farnese is one of the most fascinating examples of a Renaissance residence in all of Europe. It has five floors, dozens of rooms, frescoed rooms, public and private spaces and a park with dream gardens.
The Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola is one of the most important and intriguing late Renaissance monuments in Europe. An outstanding work begun by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Baldassare Peruzzi but finished by Jacopo Barozzi, known as Vignola.
The Palazzo Farnese building consists of five floors, including the basement, and is surrounded by a large moat. It has a pentagonal shape and a circular internal courtyard.
At the back, it has two secret gardens and, further upstream, a further place of delight immersed in the woods, with a series of fountains accompanying a building, already summer residence of the President of the Republic Luigi Einaudi.
Over the course of twenty years, the rooms were decorated with frescoes of mythological and geographical subjects and with episodes from the history of the Farnese family. Among the numerous illustrious painters who worked we find the brothers Federico and Taddeo Zuccari, Jacopo Zanguidi (known as Bertoja) a pupil of Parmigianino, Raffaellino da Reggio and Giovanni de Vecchi.
On the main floor are located the Cardinal’s bedroom, the Camera dell’Aurora, and the Celebrities’ room, called the Room of Farnesian Splendours, decorated with frescoes that summarize the life of the Farnese family.
Beyond is the Antechamber of the Council, which takes its name from the fresco of the Council of Trent and in which Vignola has expertly recreated, with the brush, extremely realistic columns . Also interesting, in the same room, is the fresco of Paul III among the cardinals.
Next, we find the Sala dei Glosti di Ercole masterfully decorated by the Zuccari Brothers with the depiction of the mythological creation of Lake Vico.
One of the most representative rooms of the palace is the Geographical Room or the World Map. It takes its name from the frescoes by Giovanni Antonio da Varese depicting the world then known from travellers’ descriptions. This room contains an even more fascinating work, a singular representation of the Zodiac in the ceiling vault.
The Gardens of Palazzo Farnese
The Italian Gardens extend within a vast monumental complex, from the lower gardens, close to the Palace, going up beyond the silver fir grove where the spectacle explodes with sculptures, fountains, water features, boxwood labyrinths .
The Casina del Piacere and the High Gardens
A place created for hunting but which became a secret and intimate refuge for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, isolated and in a dominant position over the entire monumental complex with a spectacular view of the Roman countryside.
The Circular Courtyard
An exceptional architectural solution on which the entire construction of the Palace is based. A set of architectural and symbolic meanings.
The building was initially conceived as a defensive structure and, only later, a sumptuous palace in place of the original fortress on the pre-existing massive bases of a military construction.
Palazzo Farnese – Villa Farnese
Piazza Farnese 1
Caprarola (Viterbo)
Lazio – Italy
Website info (Further info)
What to do see where to go in the province in the surrounding area near places to visit weekends Art Historical Buildings Attractions Gardens tourist interest