The Villa Pigneto or Sacchetti, or also the Casino al Pigneto del Marchese Sacchetti was a villa in Rome, Italy, designed by the Baroque artist Pietro da Cortona. A second, plainer, Villa Sacchetti, now called Villa Chigi, is found at

Castelfusano Castelfusano is an urban park in the comune of Rome. It divides the sea quarter of Ostia and the neighborhood of Casalpalocco. The castle and the park were founded in the 17th century by the Sacchetti family. Its vegetation consists mainly in a ...

near Ostia and also was decorated (if not designed) by Cortona. The Roman villa was an elaborately decorated suburban

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

or (lodge), that stood only for some decades after completion in 1630, just at the then-outskirts of Rome (now Pigneto Sacchetti train stop) at the foot of

Monte Mario Monte Mario (English: Mount Mario or Mount Marius) is the hill that rises in the north-west area of Rome (Italy), on the right bank of the Tiber, crossed by the Via Trionfale. It occupies part of Balduina, of the territory of Municipio Roma I ...

. From the top rampart of the garden entrance, one should have been able to glimpse above the surrounding pine forest (''pigneto'') the domes of

St Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a Church (building), church built in the Renaissance architecture, Renaissanc ...

and central Rome. As the name

implies, this was a "pleasure house", a lodge where notables could take refuge from the crowded Rome. The

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

suburbana was commissioned by the Florentine Marchese , papal treasurer of the profligate Barberini Pope Urban VIII. Other members of this family benefited for a few decades from association with the pope, including his brother Giulio, named cardinal, and another brother, named general of papal armies. Cortona, a fellow Tuscan, designed the villa for his long-time patron. We can only reconstruct the villa from etchings, paintings, plans, and scant architectural ruins left, although the findings generally agree. The effort was the fruit of one of Cortona's first architectural designs. The house was built on a high plinth on a hillside. The favored garden approach had three tiers, not unlike

Vignola Vignola (Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese: ; Bolognese dialect, Bolognese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Modena (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. Its economy is based on agriculture, especially fruit farming, but there are also mechani ...

Villa Giulia The Villa Giulia is a villa in Rome, Italy. It was built by Pope Julius III in 1551–1553 on what was then the edge of the city. Today it is publicly owned, and houses the Museo Nazionale Etrusco, a collection of Etruscan art and artifacts. ...

from the previous century; daring symmetric flights of stairs gave drama to the entrance and flanked a large basin-fountain with cascading waters and a nymphaeum. Atop a three-story pavilion with lower forward-thrusting wings. The concave forward embrace of the wings is reinforced by the central

exedra An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...

, which recalls the

Cortile del Belvedere The (Belvedere Courtyard or Belvedere Court) was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome. Designed by Donato Bramante from 1505 onward, its concept and details reverberated in courtyard design, formalized ...

(

Cortile della Pigna The (Belvedere Courtyard or Belvedere Court) was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome. Designed by Donato Bramante from 1505 onward, its concept and details reverberated in courtyard design, formalized ...

) in the Vatican. Unlike the Villa Giulia and the Belvedere, the facade is elaborately decorated. Statuary, in a style reminiscent of Palladio's

Palazzo Chiericati The Palazzo Chiericati is a Renaissance palace in Vicenza (northern Italy), designed by Andrea Palladio. History Palladio was asked to design and build the palazzo by Count Girolamo Chiericati. The architect started building the palace in 1 ...

(1550) at

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thr ...

, crenelates the skyline. In a model to be repeated by Cortona's never-implemented plans for

Palazzo Chigi The Chigi Palace ( it, Palazzo Chigi ) is a palace and former noble residence in Rome which is the seat of the Council of Ministers and the official residence of the Prime Minister of Italy. Since 22 October 2022, the tenant of the Chigi Palace h ...

in Rome and later by the

Trevi Fountain The Trevi Fountain ( it, Fontana di Trevi) is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini and several others. Standing high and wide, it is the lar ...

, this palace integrates the fountains into the entrance. Within 50 years, the Sacchettis and Barberini fell out of favor, the palace fell in great disrepair, and soon became a ruin. The villa also had its contemporary critics; Bernini likened the structure to a "Christmas crib" (Presepio) In the middle of the 19th century, the site was sold by the surviving Sacchettis, and the remaining structure razed. It was, for its day a daring design, which influenced other baroque creations. Today, the area is a park (''Pineto'').https://web.archive.org/web/20060909055944/http://www.romanatura.roma.it/parchi/pineto.php

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Drawing by Giuseppe Vasi

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villa Pigneto Del Marchese Sacchetti Houses completed in the 17th century Pigneto del Marchese Sacchetti Pigneto del Marchese Sacchetti, Villa Pietro da Cortona buildings