The Story of the Casino Farnese

Seconda edizione ampliata ed aggiornata

In the Italian Renaissance, a casino was a quiet aristocratic villa in the green. The Casino Farnese is located in Trastevere, on Via della Lungara next to the Villa Farnesina and opposite Palazzo Corsini, in what was originally a vigna – a landholding filled with orchards and vineyards. The Casino Farnese (1495) is over 500 years old and lies in an area of Rome immensely rich in world history, art and culture. In and around this geographical microcosm, extraordinary people have come and gone; events great and small have left their mark. It is a place of creativity and learning, deeply connected with art, music, literature, philosophy and science, and in many ways also with the Nordic countries of Scandinavia. Since 2006 the Casino Farnese has become the new home of the historic Circolo Scandinavo per Artisti e Scienziati, which had its beginnings in the 1820s and ’30s but was officially founded on July 2, 1860, just a few months before the proclamation of the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Rome and the Papal States were later annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, in 1870, and Italy became a republic in 1946. But now, before turning to the story of the Casino Farnese itself and then to its current Nordic-artist residents and their own history, let us take a virtual journey through time and space.