Villa Lante site features

The garden descends in terraces along one axis, and the water runs the length of it. Read from the top: the Fountain of the Deluge closes the main axis, framed by two small casini known as the Houses of the Muses. Water conduits set in their eaves, worked by a remote switch, throw jets across the gap to complete the ensemble called the theatre of the waters. Cardinal Gambara's name is cut into their cornices, and one of them opens onto a small secret garden of hedges and topiary with a line of columns and a distinctly melancholy air.

Below that comes the catena d'acqua, the chain of water -- a rill of linked basins that lets the stream ripple down the slope between flanking stairs, arriving at a fountain between sculpted crayfish claws, a reference to the cardinal's heraldic device. The terrace it lands on holds a long stone table with a channel of running water cut down its centre to keep wine cool, and large sculpted river gods flanking the fountain behind.

The next terrace down has the Fontana dei Lumini, a circular tiered fountain set between two stone staircases; on the ledge of each tier small fountains shaped like Roman oil lamps throw up jets that catch the light like flames. Camellias and other ericaceous shrubs, added in the 19th century, flower in the shade here.

At the bottom is the Quadrato, a perfectly square parterre -- laid out a generation before the first French parterres at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Fontainebleau. The twin casini stand along one side; high box hedges close the other three; low box is clipped into patterns around small fountains and sculptures. Its centrepiece is a fountain of four basins separated by parapeted walks, the parapets set with stone pineapples and urns that interrupt the water. In the middle basin stands Giambologna's Fontana dei Mori: four life-sized moors squared around two lions, holding up the heraldic mountain of the Montalto arms with a star-shaped jet at its summit.

A perspective plan of 1609 records more than survives -- a wooded area of walks and vistas towards obelisks, and a maze that has since disappeared.

The twin casini

Two nearly identical square pavilions, built thirty years apart by two unrelated owners, standing side by side along one edge of the parterre. The space a central palace would have occupied is the garden itself, which is the whole argument of the design.

Fontana dei Mori

Giambologna's fountain at the heart of the parterre: four life-sized moors squared around two lions, holding up the heraldic mountain of the Montalto arms with a star-shaped jet at its summit.

The Quadrato

A perfectly square parterre of clipped box, laid out a generation before the first French parterres at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Fontainebleau. High box hedges close three sides; the fountain of four basins fills the middle, its parapets set with stone pineapples and urns that interrupt the water.

Catena d'acqua

The chain of water: a rill of linked basins carrying the stream down the slope between flanking stairs, arriving at a fountain between sculpted crayfish claws -- a reference to the cardinal's own heraldic device.

The stone dining table

A long table on the third terrace with a channel of running water cut down its centre to keep wine cool, with large sculpted river gods flanking the fountain behind it.

Fontana dei Lumini

A circular tiered fountain set between two stone staircases. On the ledge of each tier, small fountains shaped like Roman oil lamps throw up jets that catch the light like flames.

The theatre of the waters

The Fountain of the Deluge closing the main axis, framed by the two small casini known as the Houses of the Muses. Water conduits set in their eaves, worked by a remote switch, throw jets across the gap to complete the ensemble.

The secret garden

A small enclosure of hedges, topiary and a line of columns, reached through one of the upper casini, with a distinctly melancholy air.

The Gambara frescoes

Landscape painting filling the vaulted loggias of the first casino in strong colour, highlighting the architectural detail rather than competing with it.

The Montalto reception room

The principal room of the second casino, where fresco is combined with plaster sculpture and worked almost into trompe-l'oeil.