Villa Torlonia in Rome, entered from Via Nomentana, was built for the banker Giovanni Torlonia. From 1802 to 1806 the Neoclassical architect Giuseppe Valadier turned the main building into a palace and laid out a park with symmetrical avenues, and Giovanni's son Alessandro finished the work. In the 1830s and 1840s Giuseppe Jappelli transformed the south section with avenues, small lakes and unusual buildings. The garden follows the English picturesque style.
The Casina delle Civette, or House of the Little Owls, began as a Swiss Cabin designed by Jappelli in 1840, and Enrico Gennari converted it into a residence from 1908. A third- to fourth-century Jewish catacomb with about 3,800 graves was found in the grounds in 1919.
Mussolini lived here from 1925. Rome's municipality bought the villa in 1977 and opened it to the public in 1978.
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