Villa Borghese Gardens

Villa Borghese Gardens are the landscaped heart of the Villa Borghese estate, begun in the early 17th c. as Cardinal Scipione Borghese’s private realm of controlled nature, classical display, and theatrical views. Baroque geometry survives in avenues and parterre spaces, later softened by lakes, groves, and features such as the Temple of Aesculapius (1785–92), where Enlightenment ideals linked health, beauty, and ordered scenery. Opened to the public in 1903, the gardens became one of Rome’s most familiar civic refuges, where art and greenery still shape how the city imagines respite.