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In 1826, Ferdinand Acton entrusted to Pietro Valente the task of building a Greco-Roman style residence that would then, in the English fashion of the day, be the centerpiece of a park. The intention of Valenti and the owner was to create a kind of Pompeian villa with the central atrium moved to the front of the building where Doric columns would then provide the only opening onto the gardens. The magnificence of these columns still strikes the eye of the casual passer-by today from the avenue fifty yards away. The property has changed hands a few times since the
construction of the villa. It was bought in 1841 by
Karl Meyer von Rothschild of the German family of
financiers; then in 1867 it came into the hands of the
Duke of Monteleone, Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes,
whose widow then willed it to the Italian state in
1952. The villa today has managed to preserve and
maintain intact the fine gardens in front of the
building. The grounds house a coach museum, a
collection of French and English vehicles from the
eighteenth and nineteenth century. It is also the site
of numerous art shows. |
