GALA DINNER on FRIDAY 19th - 08.00 P.M.
Casina Valadier Today
The Casina Valadier reopened to the public on June 19th 2004. After many alternating periods of great splendour and long silences, thanks to a group of entrepreneurs and professionals, the jewel of Villa Borghese has been given back to the city and the Romans in all its old magnificence. Restored according to the original project by Valadier and given all the advantages of technology of the third millennium, the Casina offers today to its guests, in an elegant 18th century setting, a wide range of high quality services that make the Casina unique in its genre. As well as the restaurant on the upper floors and the terraces that have made it famous, the pearl of the Pincio is enriched by a café in the garden, an elegant wine cellar in the Sala Romana and a refined bar on the first floor, ideal for aperitif and after dinner drinks with a view of Rome. The restoration works have also uncovered the ancient Roman Cistern, the important archeological site over which the building was built. Looking out over Rome, immersed in greenery and rich in history, the Casina Valadier, today more than yesterday, is one of the most evocative places in the eternal city.
Casina Valadier in the 1900’s
The years following the annexation of Rome to the Italian Kingdom and the end of the 1800’s, were a happy period for Casina Valadier: The building had great success and became very fashionable, but then, gradually, fell into decline becoming a private residence of the caretaker of Pincio. In 1920, the restorer Alfredo Banfi took over the building and opened a restaurant that was inaugurated in 1922. Decorated in Liberty style, in the course of the 1920’s it returned to being a place visited by celebrities, tourists and politicians, entering into the history of Roman Café and restaurant. During the second world war it was occupied, on several occasions and alternatively, by the German and the English, with the latter making a club with tea room for the officials. After the war, for another twenty years, the building had a period of prosperity until it entered into a new era of decline: passing through the hands of different owners, the Casina Valadier lived through turbulent years until its final closure in 1990.
History
Casina Valadier rises up on the ancient Collis Hortulorum, the highest point of Pincio, where in the past great Roman families owned the most sumptuous and vast gardens in Rome. It was built between 1816 and 1837 by Giuseppe Valadier, a well-known Roman architect and urban planner, involved in the important restoration of Piazza Del Popolo and Pincio in Rome. Valadier revised in neoclassical style the prior Casino Della Rota, a 16th century building built on the remains of an ancient Roman cistern. From the beginning, Casina was planned and built to be used as a meeting place after the manner of French Bistro but not withstanding the incredible beauty of the place and the view, a lot of time was needed to obtain the satisfaction of the Romans, patrons of other famous meeting places such as the Caffè Veneziano on the Corso or Nazzarri in Piazza di Spagna. Only after the First World War did Casina become the most fashionable place in Rome, a haunt for artists, intellectuals and political figures of the world. In Casina Valadier album of honour there are autographs of celebrated personalities such as Gandhi, King Farouk, Strauss, Pirandello and many more.
