Villa Torlonia, the newer of the noble Roman villas, still retains a special charm due to the unexpected amount of buildings, monuments and decorative all over the park: the Palace (never visited by the public before its opening March 21, 2006), the hoot owls, the Villino Red, Casino dei Principi, false ruins, the Lemon, the Theatre, the stables, the Moorish Serra, two obelisks and the Column of Carlo Torlonia and other service buildings surrounded by a magnificent park still covers an area of ​​approximately 130,000 square meters. It 'a wonderful park, the only garden in Rome.
It was built by Giovanni Torlonia, a French banker greatly enriched in the troubled years between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, with the work of Valadier who gave the main building, a neoclassical form. Subsequent interventions were made in the course of the nineteenth century by the family, meanwhile ennobled and related to other princely houses.
Since 1925, the Casino Nobile became the residence of Benito Mussolini, who had two bunkers add to the building, connected to the underground room, designed by Caretti near the Casino and as a frescoed Etruscan tomb. The Duce used the lemons for the screening of movies, parties and cultural events and the Golf Tournament as a tennis court.
Between 1944 and 1947 the villa was occupied by the Allied command that destroyed both buildings and the park.
The villa was purchased by the City of Rome in 1798 and had been abandoned, and was a public park, until the start of a great work of restoration of the complex; the '90s, in fact, the City has initiated a series of substantial restoration of the park is building: first the hoot owls, then the Casino dei Principi, the southern part of the park, the Red Villino until the recent restoration of limonaia, the Detached Medieval Casino Nobile, of Old Stables and the northern part of the park.
In the villa there are 2 precious museum recently restored and reopened to the public: The hoot owls and the Casino dei Principi. The hoot owls, open to the public in 1997 as the Museum of Stained Glass, was built in 1840 by architect Giuseppe Jappelli and modified in 1917 by Vincenzo Fasolo will of Giovanni Torlonia, Jr. who had decided to turn it into a home. At the time the building was decorated with wrought iron, wood paneling, mosaics, ceramics, stucco, but above all windows, where occurred the reason for the owl. The Casino dei Principi has an interesting history. Used by Prince Alessandro Torlonia who organized shows in the amphitheater below, has recently been restored and brought to light the beautiful mosaic floors and original paintings. Inside the Casino is a museum where you can admire a collection of sculptures of the Torlonia princes.