Thursday Doors – December 13, 2018

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time), by using the blue link-up button below. 

It’s All About The Stained Glass – The House of the Owls – Villa Torlonia, Roma

Holiday Note: I’ll be taking a one week break between Christmas and New Years so there will be no #ThursdayDoors link-up post on December 27th. For regular #ThursdayDoors participants please consider the last post of 2018 on December 20th as an invitation to do a year-end recap post of your own favorite door discoveries of the past twelve months.

Built in the early 19th century by wealthy Italian banker Giovanni Torlonia, Villa Torlonia is a grand example of Neoclassical architecture in the heart of modern Rome.

Now a museum, this palatial estate served many purposes over the years including being the official residence of Mussolini for several decades. If you’re interested you can read a bit about it below and here

Today however I thought I’d give you a peek at one of the most fascinating structures found on the estate, the Swiss style cottage know as the Casina delle Civette or House of the Owls.

Designed as a secondary residence, or perhaps a guest house that was decidedly less lavish than the main building, its name seems to come from the Owl themed decor which started to appear in its decorating scheme in the early 1900’s.

The other unique part of this building is the large variety of decorative stained glass that adorns every nook and cranny of the place.

Virtually every door or window in the house contains a work of stained glass art and some of the pieces are just stunning to behold.

Since we spent a good hour and a half walking through the place saying not much more than “wow”, I think I’ll just leave these here and let you admire for yourselves.

If Rome is on your travel list and you’re in the mood for something other than just ancient statues and ruins, an afternoon spent exploring the Villa Torlonia Estate would certainly be a worthwhile change of pace.

As always, I thank you so much for visiting.

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