Gardens

The American Academy in Rome is in an area of Rome that has a long history of gardens, first as part of the Horti Caesaris and Getae, followed in the sixteenth century by several "Casini in Vigna" and in the late nineteenth century by the development of the area into smaller villas with gardens.

The Academy's site includes eleven acres of organically-cultivated gardens atop the Janiculum hill. Since this method of cultivation was adopted, twelve varieties of butterflies have settled on the Academy grounds. Other guests who enrich the gardens include hedgehogs and robins, herons, blue tits, woodpeckers, bees and lizards. In 1986, the Academy's Board of Trustees launched a campaign to restore the gardens and counteract the general decay of the landscape, caused primarily by the changing environment in the city of Rome. The implementation of the resulting Landscape Master Plan began in 1990 and continues today. The Academy's two main gardens are those around the Villa Aurelia and the Mercedes and Sid R. Bass Garden behind the McKim, Mead & White building.

The Villa Aurelia gardens are the result of at least four major periods of planting and construction, begun in 1881 by Mrs. Clara Jessup Heyland. Gorham Philip Stevens, Director of the Academy from 1917 to 1936, led the second period, and Laurance Roberts, Director from 1946 to 1960, carried out the third. The fourth period began in 1990 and continues under the supervision of the Landscape Committee of the American Academy in Rome.

The bombardment by French artillery in 1849 devastated the original garden laid down by the Farnese at the end of 1600. Old engravings and maps such as the Falda and Nolli map show a formal space, divided into geometrical areas by rows of trees. This layout survived during the following centuries with few changes. The gardens were described as being "small, but well organized", with stucco and peperino statues, open air and pergola-covered walks and "delightful fountains, among which the Orfeo one is noticeable". When Mrs. Heyland took possession of the site, she restored the grounds to create a typical Victorian garden, mixing garden features of different traditions: boxwood hedges and tropical flora, winding paths and tree topiaries, tufa rockeries and gazebos. She also planted traditional Italian villa trees (pines, Pinus pinea, holm oaks, Quercus ilex, and magnolias, Magnolia grandiflora) that provide the overall structure of today's garden. Mrs. Heyland generously bequeathed the Villa Aurelia to the Academy in 1909, and since then the traditional "gardenesque" layout has gradually been refined to a more classical garden layout.


The main features of the Aurelia gardens are the giant topiaries of Quercus ilex clipped in a dome shape, and the aerial hedges of the same plants. The entry drive is lined with two mixed borders of white and blue flowering plants, known as The Mediterranean Borders. They provide a very long and varied flowering season, starting in September and continuing through July; in fact plants that originate from the Mediterranean climate regions of the world bloom during the months when moisture is available, tending to go dormant during the summer. Therefore the flowering pattern of these plants coincides perfectly with the calendar of activities that take place at Villa Aurelia. Osteospermum ecklonis, Lavandula angustifolia and allardii, Rosmarinus officinalis "prostratus", Convolvulus cneorum, Lantana montevidensis are among the main plants that compose the borders.

There are many fountains: the water-lily fountain, which stands in the middle of a formal garden, at the crossing of orthogonal paths, and is enriched by the blossoms of pink Nymphaeas in the summer; the Pigna fountain, at the entrance of a bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) gallery that crosses the length of the main garden. The Bee fountain, a work by sculptor Simon Verity, stands at the end of a long allée, edged with two tall bay laurel hedges. The bee is portrayed busily harvesting from two cornucopias that create an arch, while dropping its honey in the little basin beneath. The fountain is draped by a giant climbing rose, Rosa Paul's Himalayan musk, covered in hundreds of tiny pink flowers in May.

The Secret Garden, designed by Academy Trustees Laurie Olin and Millicent Mercer Johnsen together with Bass Superintendent of Gardens, Alessandra Vinciguerra, opens behind the bay hedges: a secluded, cosy place where vine-covered arbours offer glimpses of the roofs of Rome. Two sides of the gardens are surrounded by trelliswork, on which climbing roses and star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) grow behind a border of mainly white flowering plants (white agapanthus A. africanus "Albus", "Iceberg" roses) with blue highlights (Plumbago capensis). On the third side yet another fountain, the Millicent Fountain, fills the atmosphere with the murmur of water. The fountain is made of rough red tufa stone with water faucets created from old Roman pottery (amphora necks, jug handles, bottoms of pots) and old roof tiles and bricks, all found in the site during the construction of the fountain. This is a typical feature in Roman gardens, where gardeners would recycle findings in their garden constructions. A dedication to Millicent Johnsen appears on the peperino coping to the fountain, carved by Simon Verity. Behind the fountain, a background of evergreen shrubs gradually creates mystery and shade. Ferns (Athyrium filix-foemina), Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus), bamboos (Arundinaria murielae), New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax), asparagus fern (A. sprengeri), on the first row, emphasize the moisture and water theme, while laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), pittosphorums (Pittosphorum tobira), eleagnus (E. ebbingei), viburnum (V. tinus) on the second-higher-row, screen the view of Villa Aurelia and enhance the sense of secret. The water is recycled.


The courtyard in front of the main façade of the Villa is laid out with a chequered parterre of gravel and grass, where a superb collection of lemon trees in Impruneta terracotta pots is displayed during the warm months. Winter months see cold hardy, evergreen lavenders in pots take place of the lemons. This design, by Academy Trustee Mercedes Bass, underlines and enhances the splendour of the Villa façade, thanks to its subtle play of colours: the golden and white gravel, the fresh greens of lemon trees and grass, the yellow lemons hanging among the foliage.

On the South side of the Villa, the terraced slope and the Rockery, lined with aerial hedges of ilex trees, are planted with Cistus, Lavandula and Ceanothus. Here thrives the oldest specimen of stone pine, Pinus pinea, of the garden and actually of the whole city.

At the far end of this side, the Hydrangea tower, wreathed with the yellow-flowered tropical climber Caesalpinia sepiaria offers a breathtaking view of the city of Rome.

Behind the McKim, Mead & White Building lies the Mercedes and Sid R. Bass Garden, which recalls the vanished landscape of the Roman countryside ("Campagna Romana"). In fact, it occupies the site of a 17th-century vineyard (Vigna Malvasia) that surrounded the building known today as Casa Rustica. The defensive walls of Rome, built in 1642-44 by Pope Urban VIII, enclose two sides of the garden.

The overall atmosphere is that of a quiet, rural place with simple planting and a domestic feeling. Fruit trees, olives and cypresses edge the sloping lawns, dotted by camomile daisies and naturalized bulbs.

The garden today has a grove of olive trees (Olea europaea); an orchard with apple, apricot, nectarine and plum trees, as well as artichokes; a big walnut (Juglans regia) surrounded by a comfortable circular bench and a bocce court. There are also Roman pines (Pinus pinea) and lindens (Tilia europaea), cherry (Prunus avium) and crab apple trees (Malus purpurea and Malus hupehensis) and persimmons. On the north side of this garden is a flower and vegetable garden surrounded by a rosemary hedge.

In the flower and vegetable garden, a line of brick-edged rectangular beds, with herbs, vegetables and cutting flowers give color and texture year round. Fountains (in tufa stone) and a rill, a little channel, running along the beds of vegetables echo traditional country irrigation devices, reminding also of the Pleasure gardens of Moresque tradition. A Texas umbrella tree (Melia azedaracht tree) on the far corner provides welcome shade to a couple of seats.

The main walk that links the main building to Casa Rustica and the back gate is lined with cherry trees (Prunus avium "Plena"). The Bass Garden also features two works by Simon Verity: a small drinking fountain, the Quasimodo fountain, located on the west side of the garden and dedicated to the most famous (and ugliest) cat of the Academy's feline community, and a sundial, modelled on Thomas Jefferson's sketches for a sundial at Monticello, that stands near the garden's olive grove, which produces extra-virgin olive oil.

© 1999-2007 American Academy in Rome
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