2024, July - Wien, 2nd International Congress of Historical Botanical Gardens - paper: "Building the Botanical Garden for Roma Capitale: history, architecture, characters" (original) (raw)

The proposal focuses on the history of a relevant place of Rome (Italy), in the heart of the Rione Trastevere, at the foot of the Janiculum Hill, even though never systematically studied: the creation of the Botanical Garden of Sapienza University of Rome in the 18th-century Villa Corsini from 1883. Among the first and more important urban public works in the city to become the capital of the new Italian State is the acquisition of the historical 12-ha park to build an updated botanical garden comparable with those of other European capitals. Protagonists of this ambitious operation were politicians such as Quintino Sella (1827–1884), the botanist Pietro Romualdo Pirotta (1853–1936), in collaboration with the architect Giulio Podesti (1842–1909). Based on an accurate and vast archival research in the Central Archive of the State and in the Historical Municipal Archive, the paper will illustrate this fascinating history as part of a complex program of a profound renewal of the city that has become the capital of Italy. The paper will highlight at the same time the special interweaving of nature, history, architecture, science of this place, result of a complex stratification, which makes this historical botanical garden entirely a cultural heritage.

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