The Villa d'Este is a villa situated at Tivoli, near Rome, Italy. Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, it is a fine example of Renaissance architecture and garden design.

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The garden plan is laid out on a central axis with subsidiary cross-axes of carefully varied character, refreshed by some five hundred jets in fountains, pools and water troughs. The copious water is supplied by the Aniene, which is partly diverted through the town, a distance of a kilometer, and by the Rivellese spring, which supplies a cistern under the villa's courtyard. The garden is now part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.

The Villa's uppermost terrace ends in a balustraded balcony at the left end, with a sweeping view over the plain below. Symmetrical double flights of stairs flanking the central axis lead to the next garden terrace, with the Grotto of Diana, richly decorated with frescoes and pebble mosaic to one side and the central Fontana del Bicchierone ("Fountain of the Great Cup") loosely attributed to Bernini, where water issues from a seemingly natural rock into a scrolling shell-like cup.

To descend to the next level, the visitor is required to take stairs at either end— the elaborate fountain complex called the Rometta ("the little Rome") is at the far left— to view the full length of the Hundred Fountains on the next level, where the water jets fill the long rustic trough, and Pirro Ligorio's Fontana dell'Ovato ends the cross-vista. A visitor may walk behind the water through the rusticated arcade of the concave nymphaeum, which is peopled by marble nymphas by Giambattista della Porta. Above the nymphaeum, the sculpture of Pegasus recalls to the visitor the fountain of Hippocrene on Parnassus, haunt of the Muses.

This terrace is united to the next by the central Fountain of the Dragons, dominating the central perspective of the gardens, erected for a visit in 1572 of Pope Gregory XIII whose coat-of-arms features a dragon. Central stairs lead down a wooded slope to three rectangular fishponds set on the cross-axis at the lowest point of the gardens, terminated at the right by the water organ and Fountain of Neptune.

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High compared to Fontana di Nettuno, complementing the scenery, the Fountain of the organ, or organ Plumber, owes its name to the prodigious mechanism for water that just went inside, it sounded.

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HADRIAN'S VILLA
The villa was created at Tibur (modern-day Tivoli) as a retreat from Rome for Roman Emperor Hadrian in the early 2nd century. Hadrian was said to dislike the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, leading to the construction of the retreat. During the later years of his reign, he actually governed the empire from the villa. A large court therefore lived there permanently. A postal service connected them to Rome.

After Hadrian, the villa was used by his various successors. During the decline of the Roman Empire the villa fell into disuse and was partially ruined. In the 16th century Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este had much of the marble and statues in Hadrian's villa removed to decorate his own Villa d'Este located nearby.

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wow, its beautifull

AWESOME! Tivoli is just 30km from my city, I'm going to visit it the next weekend :)

Very beautiful :okay:

The Villa d'Este is a villa situated at Tivoli, near Rome, Italy. Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, it is a fine example of Renaissance architecture and garden design.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1553304/Tivoli-garden-is-most-beautiful-in-Europe.html

Tivoli garden is 'most beautiful in Europe'

The cascading fountains and ornamental basins of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, outside Rome, have won the prize for the most beautiful garden in Europe.

The garden, which is built on a steep slope leading up to the villa, is a World Heritage Site for the way it encapsulates the principles of Renaissance design and aesthetics. "It is a unique garden," said the judges.

It was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este, the son of Lucrezia Borgia, in the 1550s and designed by Pirro Ligorio, who drew influence from the gardens at the ruined villa of the Emperor Hadrian nearby. The ruins also provided much of the marble for the construction of the gardens.

The result was one of the first "giardini delle meraviglie", or fantasy gardens full of statues, architectural effects and special water features, a style that was widely copied.

The garden includes more than 500 water jets, which are supplied by the river Aniene and by the Rivellese spring.

They are best admired from the uppermost terrace of the villa, which ends in a balustraded balcony and a sweeping staircase down to a terrace holding the Grotto of Diana.

The Fountain of the Great Cup in the grounds is thought to be the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The Villa d'Este, which attracts 550,000 visitors a year, came top out of 20 gardens in Britain, France, Italy, Sweden and Germany in the annual competition run by Briggs & Stratton, an American lawnmower company.

The Norrviken Gardens in Bastad, one of Sweden's most popular seaside resorts, came second.

The gardens, which were laid out by Rudolph Abelin in the 19th century, were inspired by Italian baroque gardens.

The Botanic Gardens in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Kurpark Bad Pyrmont in Germany were also praised.

No British gardens made the top five and Lister Park, in Bradford, came last in the competition.