182.

Giardino e Casino Pontificio nel Vaticano

With the building of the Bramante courtyard in the early 16th century, the Casino del Belvedere, Plate 181, lost its isolation from the main Vatican palace. As a consequence the Pope no longer had a "suburban villa" retreat in order to escape the pressures of the papal court. Pius IV Medici (1559-1565) solved this problem by building the elaborate complex shown in this view, known as the Casino Pio IV, and surrounding it with formal and semi-formal gardens and park: features typical of other suburban villas in Rome. Nolli's plan shows its layout located between the linear medieval walls of old Borgo and the bastioned walls of the Renaissance extension of Borgo. The symmetrical casino consists of alternating solids and voids on a series of terraces climbing the Vatican hill with an open loggia (1) on the middle level. Flanking the nymphaeum (2) two stairways (4) approach two equivalent entrance porticoes (3) opening onto an oblong court with rounded ends (Vasi calls it a "circular" court). Vasi shows the main building surrounded by the trees of the planned "wilderness" of the park, which contrasts sharply with its elaborately decorated facade.