L'AGER DOMITIANI

During his short life and even shorter reign as Roman emperor, Titus Flavius Domitianus (51-96 A.D.), known as "the bald Nero," found time to build himself a large villa in the Alban Hills.

The villa and its park, mentioned by Statius and Juvenal, were sited atop the ruins of the ancient and legendary city of Alba Longa, and was designed by Gaius Rabirius (who was also building Domitian's palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome).

The estate occupied an area of about 55 hectares (about 136 acres). The residential area, situated on the crest where the town of Castel Gandolfo stands today,was made up of three large terraces, each one about 500 m long, facing west on the outer slope of the volcanic crater in which Lake Albano lies; other buildings were scattered on the slopes towards the lake shore on one side and the nearby Appian Way on the other.

A 300-metre-long cryptoporticus, thought to be the longest left from antiquity (120 metres of its original length have survived), linked the lower two terraces and supported the main buildings, while the third terrace held large cisterns, whose total length was 123 metres. The water stored in these cisterns was supplied by the nearby Palafitto aqueduct,3 km long,dug through the bedrock.

Between the second and third terraces was a theatre,25 metres wide,with twenty-two rows of seats set into the rock wall of the crater. A road (the Domitian Way) descended from upper park (near today's Villa Barberini) to the lake, ending near the "Bergantino" Nymphaeum (also known as Diana's Baths). In 1882 this road joined the Via Alessandrina, built by Pope Alexander VII, which circled the outer rim of the crater. Down by the lakeshore are the mouth ancient artificial outlet (built in the 4th century B.C.), the Doric Nymphaeum and the "Bergantino" Nymphaeum (restored by Domitian in 85 A.D.), where the emperor probably berthed the boats he kept on the lake for staging naval battles to entertain the court when it fled Rome's summer heat.

One of these boats was a large brigantine ? hence the nymphaeum's name? that the cruel but cowardly emperor would reach on a small boat towed by another one on a long line: Domitian's fragile nerves couldn't stand the sound of splashing oars.

On another wooded stretch of the shore are the ruins of a patrician villa, a lighthouse and a small marina.Very little information about the ancient marvels of Domitian's villa has come down to us, and that little is the result of the keen research by Riccy, Giorni, Tomassetti and Lugli. We also have beautiful etchings by Piranesi, Labruzzi, Canina and del Rosa.

What remains of the Albanum Domitiani - four nymphaeums, several fountains,the hippodrome,the theatre,the baths, the statue of a bacchante and an equestrian statute of the emperor - is now in the Papal Villas, which the Italian government turned over to the Vatican pursuant to the 1929 Concordat. In 1989, an Antiquarium was installed on the ground floor of former Villa Barberini to host some of the finds discovered during the excavations carried out in 1841 at the Bergantino Nyphmaeum, and other finds from nearby areas.

What were once the grounds of Domitian's park are now occupied by Pope's Palace and its Moor's Garden, and the Barberini and Cybo papal villas. Villa Barberini (also known as the Mompecchio Villa), attributed to Bernini, was commissioned in 1625 by Taddeo Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. It was enlarged in 1631, thanks to the purchase of a mansion owned by the Milanese Monsignor Scipio Visconti di Besnate, and was completed in 1635.

The Visconti's heraldic snake still appears on the cornice of the western façade, and the Barberini bees on the eastern façade.Villa Cybo is named for Cardinal Camillo Cybo, who bought it, together with the adjacent mansion, in 1717. Its marvellous gardens, with their "Washerwomen's Fountain" are famous. The park contains a large auditorium that was commissioned by Pope Pius XII, built in1957 by the architect Enrico Galeazzi, and inaugurated in 1959 by Pope John XXIII.

Used only a few times by Pope Paul VI, the auditorium was eventually entrusted by Pope John Paul II to the "Focolarini" religious organization, which has adapted it to host pilgrimages in honour of the Virgin Mary and other religious events. Fronting on the main road is the Palazzetto Cybo, built in 1707 by the architect Francesco Fontana for his own use. He intended to link this small building to villa Cybo by an overpass,and from there, through a tunnel, to the town square and the Pope's Palace, but his plan fell through. In 1841, Pope Gregory XVI turned the Palazzetto to the Brothers of Christian Schools.

The Pope's Palace and the Moor's Garden were built on the site of the old castle of the Gandolfi family (who ruled the town in the 12th century). Their construction started in 1624, under Pope Urban VIII, a Barberini, to plans by the great architect Carlo Maderno, who also supervised the work. Even before becoming pope, Urban owned a small house adjacent to the old castle (the first floor of the medieval tower) near the 16th-century Porta Romana.

The entire castle came into his possession when he was raised to the rank of cardinal, and as pope he ordered its complete restoration, which was completed in 1626. Fifteen years later, Pope Alexander VII Chigi had some further work done on the palace by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who also designed a new façade.