The Orange Garden, a charming view of the Eternal City

Capital of Italy and one of the most beautiful and culturally rich cities in the world, Rome has always been considered, even centuries before the birth of Christ, as the center of Christianity and the Western world, the eternal and imperishable city that has seen the rise of the largest empire history has ever known. Churches, basilicas, theaters, buildings, relics, galleries, statues, sculptures, ancient artifacts and priceless monuments, squares and mausoleums, all this and more can be found in Rome, where around every corner can be hidden unique treasures.

For this reason Rome is also a very demanding city to visit: huge (nearly 1,300 square kilometers of extension) and magnificent, is the largest town of the Belpaese and among the largest on the whole continent. That’s why anyone who decides to visit the immortal crafts of the capital certainly will not mind stopping to rest under the shade of the tall and numerous orange trees in the Parco Savelli, for this reason better known just as the Orange Garden. The delightful garden covers the area of the ancient fortress built by the Savelli family between 1285 and 1287, near the Santa Sabina sull’Aventino church, based on a pre-existing castle built by the Crescenzi family in the tenth century.

The current garden was instead built in 1932 by Raffaele de Vico, when following the new definition of the Aventine urbanism, had been expected to allocate a public park area where Dominican fathers of the nearby church kept their vegetable garden, to provide free access to the view from the side of the hill, which still boasts one of the most breathtaking panoramic views of the sunsets of the Eternal City. The garden, planted with orange trees with reference to the tree where St. Dominic, founder of the order, used to pray, still kept in the nearby monastery of Santa Sabina and visible through a hole in the lock of the church porch, did receive from de Vico a rigidly symmetrical setting, with a median avenue aligned with the viewpoint, which opens in two large and sinuous widenings. The main entrance, in the S. Pietro di Illyria square, was enriched in 1937 by the portal from Villa Balestra on the Via Flaminia, which still decorates the entrance to the park.

A true oasis of tranquility in the historical center of Rome, a terrace overlooking the millenary beauty sunsets and granting the rare luxury of contemplating the ancient skyline of the Eternal City in all its glory.