192.

Giardino Pontificio sul Quirinale

The Giardino Pontificio occupies a promontory of the Quirinal hill that once offered splendid views of the Campo Marzio below. The extensive gardens of the Popes' summer palace are bounded on the south east by a long building wing called the manica lunga (3) literally "long sleeve." As Vasi notes, this linear structure is 64 arches long (approximately 260 meters or 850 feet long) and terminates in the quarters and chapel of the Swiss guards. Oriented perpendicular to the manica lunga, the back of the main block of the Palazzo Pontificio (2) is shown on the right (for a view of its front façade facing the Piazza di Monte Cavallo see Plate 61). Its multiple sections and successive additions were added by Popes from the 1580s on. The remaining sides of the garden compound were defined by a retaining wall descending to the level of the plain of Campo Marzio visible in the Nolli plan. What Vasi calls a Casino di riposo (1) (rest house) is usually referred to as the "coffee house" built for Benedict XIV Lambertini (1740-1758) by Fuga in 1743. Vasi seems to have emphasized its distinctive architectural detailing so as to contrast with the severe lines of the main palazzo. On the left we see one of the garden's numerous fountains, made possible by the Acqua Felice aqueduct which brought water to the Quirinal hill, and whose terminal fountain, Plate 148, is located on the Via del Quirinale not far from here.