Villa Torlonia reopens

For 62 years it has lain empty, an object of morbid curiosity and an uncomfortable reminder of Italy's fascist era.

Now the villa in Rome where Benito Mussolini lived with his family will become a museum housing a collection of work by artists of the Roman School of romanticism.

City authorities hope the new lease of life for the grand villa on the Via Nomentana, where Il Duce lived for 18 years, will lay the ghosts of the past to rest. . .

The property was bought by Rome city council in 1977 and the gardens were turned into a public park but the villa remained abandoned until the restoration project which began three years ago.

From the Guardian. Of course, for those of us with a late antique bent, Villa Torlonia stands out for the Jewish catacombs that lie beneath. Read more about them here and here.

Posted by David on June 13, 2005 9:34 PM