Sunday Escape - La casina delle civette in Rome

In the heart of the Roman neighborhood Nomentano, inside the park of Villa Torlonia, there is the Casina delle Civette, a small building that looks like something out of a fairytale book, so named because the owls are its recurring decorum. Designed in 1840 by Venetian renowned landscape architect Giuseppe Jappelli commissioned by Prince Alessandro Torlonia, it was born as a country with external walls of brick and tufa, looking so much like a mountain hut called Capanna Svizzera. More than sixty years later was restored by Enrico Gennari that turns into a fine residence, featuring a collage of materials (stone, copper, brick, wood, marble), of styles, of which the prevailing neo-medieval style and art nouveau. New jobs added to the building original porches, turrets, loggias with decorations in yellow tiles, green and turquoise, floor mosaics and especially with stained glass windows depicting peacocks, swallows in flight, rose, fairies and owls.

It's just the obsessive presence of this bird of prey in every corner of what has become the home of Giovanni Torlonia, misanthropic lover of esoteric symbols and of liberty style, to make it known since 1916 as Casina delle Civette. The nocturnal animal, a symbol of clairvoyance, is everywhere, in the air or resting on the branches of a tree, is in the lunettes, in the capitals, in glass, in the Prince's room, even on wallpaper and fabrics of the bed knobs. If the outside appearance is strongly fairytale, its heart is no different. Here the space is full of marble sculptures, wrought iron, mosaics, inlaid woods, wall fabrics and painted decorations. The three main rooms on the ground floor were designed to accommodate wood panelling, which remain today only in the dining room covered with wooden panels that frame the four glass doors with a design to plant crowns with leaves, laurel berries, and ears of wheat.

Also noteworthy are the many stucco. The most interesting, in the four corners in the Room of swallows, depict their nests, of falling in stages, of the hatching and of the birth and nourishment. Instead the most interesting pictorial decorations are those that grace the pavilion vault Salottino of 24 hours: a group of dancing girls, separated by sprays of roses, along with comets that cross the sky, are the emblem of the Torlonia. Even within the windows are the predominant element, one that attracts the most attention, thanks to Caesar Picchiarini laboratory craftsmanship that has made designs by Duilio Cambellotti, Umberto Bottazzi, Vittorio Grassi and Paul Paschetto. 

On sunny days, these jewels shine transparent like flowers, the grapes and the whole vast repertoire of figures and naturalistic motifs that inhabit them. In 1997, he survived the Second World War and a fire, after a long restoration, the Casina delle Civette a museum of glass, with a library of Applied Arts which contains about 1,400 volumes. What are you waiting? If you love the atmosphere of this magical fairytale and surreal place it is right for you.