#villino astengo

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[ID: An art nouveau building’s top floor from the outside; decorative capitals top the building and set into an archway clearly meant for it is a painting of a woman in medieval robes, holding a sword blade-downward. Carved underneath in marble relief is the word “Giustizia”.] 

One of the cool buildings I saw in Rome, which I didn’t get to photograph well or write much about at the time, was the building across from the Great Synagogue, the Villino Astengo. This is a photo (not mine) of a painting on the top floor exterior; one of the reasons I researched the building was this mural and the one across from it showing Scienza. You can see both paintings plus a number of fascinating architectural touches here. Legge and Verita (Law and Truth) are paintings I didn’t see and I’m not sure can be photographed based on where the wall they’re painted on is situated. 

Wikipedia tells us it was built as a show of wealth by a pair of brothers, Giulio and Carlo Astengo, on the edge of Rome’s Jewish ghetto, which by the time it was built was being uh, urban renovated? Basically the city had been doing public works to stop the constant flooding from the Tiber overflowing, and once that was under control the Ghetto was a lot more appealing as a place to build and reside. (I couldn’t determine in basic googling if the Astengo brothers were Jewish but I’m guessing not based on their social status in Italy.) 

It’s no longer a single home, and unclear whether it only houses businesses now or also has residential units. In googling I did come across a listing for the basement office, four rooms and about the same square footage as I have in my home; it’ll set you back about $600K and looks faintly hideous inside, but I suppose the beauty of the outside is what really matters in this case.... 

#rome #villino astengo #art nouveau #sam travels #the cheese tour