Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este
Hadrian's Villa (the Villa
Adriana) is in spectacular ruins, yet it is still the greatest example of
a Roman garden. Built by Hadrian at Tivoli, near Rome, early in the
second century, its 30 buildings cover some 100 ha (250 acres) of pools,
grottos and wonderfully contrived settings and vistas. It recreates a
sacred landscape that can still inspire - and which is still traceable
despite Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, Lucrezia Borgia's son stripping most of
its marble to build his own gardens at the Villa d'Este nearby in the
1550s. Both villas have UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
Hadrian drew on his extensive travels for the design of his imperial
palace. By combining Greek, Egyptian and Roman architectural orders he
turned the beautiful buildings into a personal statement and many of the
structures have symbolic meaning. As well as the residential palace,
there are bath complexes, pools, a Greek theatre, a Temple of Venus and
barracks for the Imperial Guard.
The Villa d'Este is another masterpiece. Cardinal d'Este used the
greatest architects, artists and engineers to create a palace surrounded
by a fantastic terraced garden in the late-Renaissance Mannerist style.
Hadrian was his muse, but the cardinal appropriated recent technologies
for his fantasy garden. Its blend of architectural elements and water
features (the sequence of fountain s breathtaking) had, and still has, an
enormous influence on European
landscape design. The villa has also been celebrated in poetry, painting
and music like Franz Liszt's evocative Les Jeux d'Eaux a la Villa d'Este.
