DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19775#0153
THE GARDENS OF ITALY.
the latter is said to have loved best his villa at
Castel Gandolfo, numerous inscriptions, lead labels,
and pieces of sculpture show the care he took in
adorning this at Frascati.
In the fourth century came the terrible blow
of the transportation of the Court to Constantinople.
The old capital was left in fallen grandeur, and those
who still clung to their well-loved country homes,
came to realise the awful fate that awaited a small
civilisation in the midst of an uncivilised world.
All that refinement, those choice collections,
that love of scholarship and learned leisure were
shattered and dissipated by the invasions of the
peoples of the North or the Saracens ; and those
who could not fly were forced into the narrow
space protected by the city's Cyclopean walls.
Numerous sijrns of <rreat devastations have been
found among the ruins, but nothing that points
to restoration or to any after attempt to inhabit
them. The city of Tusculum was still of consider-
able size, saved by its tremendous walls, which
enabled it to resist even the terrible onslaughts of
the barbarian devastators. Notwithstanding the
visitations of these barbarous hordes, a little group
of farmers gathered among the ruined gardens of
Lucullus ; they were probably retainers of the
great house, and, united by their Christian faith,
a church and monastery found place among them,
and so Frascati came into being.
It was in the Middle Ages that there rose
into importance the great race of the Counts of
Tusculum, under which in the ninth and three
following centuries Tusculum became again a
place of power and importance. They were a
race whose whole history is full of deeds of
cruelty and treachery ; but they figure as consuls
and senators, and gave to Rome no less than
seven popes. The ruined castle of Borghetto,
lying below, was one of their fastnesses, and the
history of Tusculum is a record of perpetual combats
with rival popes and with the Roman people.
Gradually the haughty town and its Counts
degenerated, and in 1170, the last, Count Ranio,
made over the possession to Pope Alexander III.,
who made a triumphal entry into the town and
resided there for more than two years. It was
during this time that there came to Tusculum the
Ambassadors of Henry II. of England, bringing
the news of the murder of Thomas a Beckett,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and charged with the
task of clearing the Kins; from the accusation of
having conspired to bring it about.
As one of the conditions of accepting Alexander
as their sovereign, the Tusculans were required to
level their impregnable walls. The work of
destruction was carried out in 1 172, and the ancient
citv was left in an absolutely defenceless condition.
In 1 191, Pope Celestin III., and the Emperor
Henry VI., betrayed the unhappy city into the
hands of its enemies, the ever-jealous Romans. On
an April night they surprised and stormed the place;
the inhabitants defended themselves desperately, but
a terrible massacre took place, and afterwards every
building and temple and the prehistoric walls of
Telegonus were razed to the ground, and salt strewn
over the ruins, so that they should never be restored.
The Colonna claim descent from the Conti,
one of the oldest families in Italy, and a branch is
said to have founded the Royal Family of Germany.
The last of the race, Fulvia Conti, married a Sforza
in 1650, and by an alliance with the Sforza-Cesarini
and the Torlonia, the Villa Conti belongs to-day to
Duke Torlonia.
In 1607, Cardinal Tolomeo de Come, Bishop
of Tusculum, sold the villa to Cardinal Scipione
Borghese, and it afterwards belonged to Cardinals
Altemps and Ludovisi. It was only in 1632 that it
was bought by the Conti. This family has given
to Rome twenty-three popes, three anti-popes, four
saints, twenty-two cardinals, and a whole bevy of
martyrs, bishops, abbots, and senators.
The villa itself is an unpretending white
house, with broad eaves, and is of no particular
interest. The whole beauty of the place lies in
the grounds, which are approached by a fine
avenue of plane trees. The great stairway offers
an imposing coup d'cei/, spread out against the
slope in magnificent amplitude, its timeworn grey-
stone relieved against the dark woods above, and
the intervening spaces filled with pink monthly
roses, which in spring and summer are very gay
and sweet. At the top of this easy ascent a wide
terrace runs the length of the grounds, from which
we may wander into the dense ilex woods, studded
with open spaces, in which are set graceful
fountains. Suddenly the wood clears away and a
wide stretch of green leads to the cascade, a
terraced erection where the water falls from a
considerable height and loses itself in a large,
shallow basin, surrounded by stone arches and
parapets, and a fountain rises high in the midst.
Climbing the mossy, shallow steps which mount
on either side of the curving waterway, another
plateau is reached, on which is placed the
fountain, with its splendid framework of balus-
trading, here illustrated, and which, shut in on
three sides by the ilex wood, and on the
other commanding peeps and vistas of distant
plain and mountain, is one of the most beautiful
objects of this or, indeed, of any Italian garden.
The water here is dark and deep, and there is
not lacking a story of a guilty monk finding his
grave here. He is said to walk on moonlight
nights, and to disappear in the spray of the
fountain.
Among those who lived here in other days
was Henry, Cardinal of York, who, on the death
of his brother, Charles Edward, caused himself
to be proclaimed King of England, by the title
of Henry IX. He lived forty-two years at
Frascati, of which he was the bishop ; there is
a monument erected by him to his brother in
the cathedral, and a bust of himself in the
library which he founded.
( M3 )
the latter is said to have loved best his villa at
Castel Gandolfo, numerous inscriptions, lead labels,
and pieces of sculpture show the care he took in
adorning this at Frascati.
In the fourth century came the terrible blow
of the transportation of the Court to Constantinople.
The old capital was left in fallen grandeur, and those
who still clung to their well-loved country homes,
came to realise the awful fate that awaited a small
civilisation in the midst of an uncivilised world.
All that refinement, those choice collections,
that love of scholarship and learned leisure were
shattered and dissipated by the invasions of the
peoples of the North or the Saracens ; and those
who could not fly were forced into the narrow
space protected by the city's Cyclopean walls.
Numerous sijrns of <rreat devastations have been
found among the ruins, but nothing that points
to restoration or to any after attempt to inhabit
them. The city of Tusculum was still of consider-
able size, saved by its tremendous walls, which
enabled it to resist even the terrible onslaughts of
the barbarian devastators. Notwithstanding the
visitations of these barbarous hordes, a little group
of farmers gathered among the ruined gardens of
Lucullus ; they were probably retainers of the
great house, and, united by their Christian faith,
a church and monastery found place among them,
and so Frascati came into being.
It was in the Middle Ages that there rose
into importance the great race of the Counts of
Tusculum, under which in the ninth and three
following centuries Tusculum became again a
place of power and importance. They were a
race whose whole history is full of deeds of
cruelty and treachery ; but they figure as consuls
and senators, and gave to Rome no less than
seven popes. The ruined castle of Borghetto,
lying below, was one of their fastnesses, and the
history of Tusculum is a record of perpetual combats
with rival popes and with the Roman people.
Gradually the haughty town and its Counts
degenerated, and in 1170, the last, Count Ranio,
made over the possession to Pope Alexander III.,
who made a triumphal entry into the town and
resided there for more than two years. It was
during this time that there came to Tusculum the
Ambassadors of Henry II. of England, bringing
the news of the murder of Thomas a Beckett,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and charged with the
task of clearing the Kins; from the accusation of
having conspired to bring it about.
As one of the conditions of accepting Alexander
as their sovereign, the Tusculans were required to
level their impregnable walls. The work of
destruction was carried out in 1 172, and the ancient
citv was left in an absolutely defenceless condition.
In 1 191, Pope Celestin III., and the Emperor
Henry VI., betrayed the unhappy city into the
hands of its enemies, the ever-jealous Romans. On
an April night they surprised and stormed the place;
the inhabitants defended themselves desperately, but
a terrible massacre took place, and afterwards every
building and temple and the prehistoric walls of
Telegonus were razed to the ground, and salt strewn
over the ruins, so that they should never be restored.
The Colonna claim descent from the Conti,
one of the oldest families in Italy, and a branch is
said to have founded the Royal Family of Germany.
The last of the race, Fulvia Conti, married a Sforza
in 1650, and by an alliance with the Sforza-Cesarini
and the Torlonia, the Villa Conti belongs to-day to
Duke Torlonia.
In 1607, Cardinal Tolomeo de Come, Bishop
of Tusculum, sold the villa to Cardinal Scipione
Borghese, and it afterwards belonged to Cardinals
Altemps and Ludovisi. It was only in 1632 that it
was bought by the Conti. This family has given
to Rome twenty-three popes, three anti-popes, four
saints, twenty-two cardinals, and a whole bevy of
martyrs, bishops, abbots, and senators.
The villa itself is an unpretending white
house, with broad eaves, and is of no particular
interest. The whole beauty of the place lies in
the grounds, which are approached by a fine
avenue of plane trees. The great stairway offers
an imposing coup d'cei/, spread out against the
slope in magnificent amplitude, its timeworn grey-
stone relieved against the dark woods above, and
the intervening spaces filled with pink monthly
roses, which in spring and summer are very gay
and sweet. At the top of this easy ascent a wide
terrace runs the length of the grounds, from which
we may wander into the dense ilex woods, studded
with open spaces, in which are set graceful
fountains. Suddenly the wood clears away and a
wide stretch of green leads to the cascade, a
terraced erection where the water falls from a
considerable height and loses itself in a large,
shallow basin, surrounded by stone arches and
parapets, and a fountain rises high in the midst.
Climbing the mossy, shallow steps which mount
on either side of the curving waterway, another
plateau is reached, on which is placed the
fountain, with its splendid framework of balus-
trading, here illustrated, and which, shut in on
three sides by the ilex wood, and on the
other commanding peeps and vistas of distant
plain and mountain, is one of the most beautiful
objects of this or, indeed, of any Italian garden.
The water here is dark and deep, and there is
not lacking a story of a guilty monk finding his
grave here. He is said to walk on moonlight
nights, and to disappear in the spray of the
fountain.
Among those who lived here in other days
was Henry, Cardinal of York, who, on the death
of his brother, Charles Edward, caused himself
to be proclaimed King of England, by the title
of Henry IX. He lived forty-two years at
Frascati, of which he was the bishop ; there is
a monument erected by him to his brother in
the cathedral, and a bust of himself in the
library which he founded.
( M3 )