The Villa Farnesina

Two words about Villa Farnesina

The Villa Farnesina is located in via Della Lungara in Trastevere and is one of the representative buildings of Renaissance architecture of the early sixteenth century as well as being the current seat of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

It was designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi and was frescoed following an iconographic scheme entrusted to the greatest artists of the period, among which the figure of Raffaello Sanzio stands out.

The History of Villa Farnesina in Brief

Villa Farnesina was built in the early 1500s by Peruzzi.
The villa was commissioned by the Sienese banker and patron Agostino Chigi.

Initially it was called Villa Chigi had a great prominence from the beginning, being soon cited and imitated.

Agostino Chigi died in 1520 and, following this tragic event, the villa had a tragic fate, as it was stripped of its opulence and fell into disrepair until it was purchased by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese.

The centuries passed and, less than 200 years later, this villa became the property of the Bourbons of Naples, although only in 1864, thanks to the ambassador Bermudez de Castro who settled there, it had some restorations.

Today the villa is owned by the Italian State and has become the representative office of the Accademia dei Lincei and of the National Prints and Drawings Department.

Why Visit Villa Farnesina?

Villa Farnesina is a building which, albeit with some architectural flaws (which only an expert eye could recognize), is endowed with its own unique beauty also given by the use of Bramante models in use in Rome during the period in which it was built.

Despite this, however, it is its interior that is noteworthy.

What will surely amaze and delight your eyes is the loggia of this villa in which the story of Cupid and Psyche was frescoed by Raphael in which the representation of many plants and botanical species also from America stands out.

But the frescoes certainly do not end with this magnificent work.

In the adjacent room of the Fregio you can see the mythological frescoes by Peruzzi which refer to the exploits of Hercules but also to Ovid’s metamorphoses.

The mythological theme also returns in the Sala di Galatea, also frescoed by Peruzzi and in which you can find the representations of some myths such as that of Daedalus and Icarus.

Another noteworthy room is the one that has been baptized “Sala Delle Prospettive”. The frescoes in this room, also made by Peruzzi, create the optical illusion of three-dimensionality thanks to its fake loggias with views of Rome.

In short, the artistic richness of this villa is a great reason to visit it at any time of the year.

Opening hours and visits to Villa Farnesina tickets

The villa can be visited mainly from Monday to Saturday, except for some Sundays.

It is also possible to book extraordinary openings of the same, but it is a visit that must be specifically requested in advance.

Finally, you should know that in the Villa Farnesina it is possible to take photographs without a flash but it is not possible in any way to make videos inside it. Of course, the use of these photographs is for private and non-commercial use.