Among the parks that I appreciate most in Rome there is that one of Villa Celimontana. Still today, strolling along the tree-lined paths, the bushes, and a few archaeological remains that attest to the long history of the place, it is easy to feel almost out of touch with reality. Little wrought by tourists, the Villa Celimontana Park is close by the Basilica of Santa Maria in Domnica and opposite to that one of Santo Stefano Rotondo. For a local tour guide like me, but even for the locals, this park is a good way to breathe a little bit, relaxing the body and the mind. Follow me!
Even for a park the origins belong to a very ancient past... Many centuries ago, even in the Flavian age (I century d.C.). It is not easy, but you can see small masonry fragments coming from that era. In addition, following the archaeological excavations made two centuries ago, here were found the remains of the Castra of the fifth cohort of the Vigiles, the police wanted by the emperor Augustus, during his accommodation administrative and not only of his new Rome. In short, the stories of the different ages that are intertwined! But the luck of the park comes during the XVI century, when the whole area was purchased by the Mattei family, one of the noble families most in view, and the rich, of the Rome of the time. As by the taste and ideology of the time to own a suburban villa, and then out of the city centre, was a source of pride. Moreover the Caelian Hill, where the park is located, even in the ancient Roman time was pure periphery. In addition we have to say how the style required that this house should be surrounded by a large garden which, in turn, was to be decorated and filled with antiques of all kinds. Marble statues, fountains, and even obelisks, as surprisingly we can still admire today.
The small obelisk of the Villa Celimontana Park, called “skewer”, is directly from Egypt and it was donated to the Mattei family in the XVI century. This detail indicates, still more, the influence that the Mattei had in Rome at that time. To make you understand about the extraordinary size and extension of the family's private collection, which was used to beautify the park and invigorate the weary spirits of the noble members of the Mattei, is enough to know that many of those works are today exposed in the Vatican Museums. In short, a true treasure kept at home, and in the open, which made the park a real archaeological area ante litteram! And today? Today we have a beautiful park, rich in history, not very crowded and perfect to spend some time in the company of nature and of the true soul of the Eternal City...