The Lily Fountain
below the House of
Pleasure, situated
in the middle of the
Secret Garden
pentagonal plan to the exigencies
of his own vision of architecture,
already realized in his design for
the Villa Giulia on the outskirts
of Rome, built for the preceding
pope, Julius III. Vignola created,
at the center of the pentagon, a
circular colonnaded courtyard with paired Ionic columns
flanking niches with busts of the Roman emperors. The
gallery and upper floors are reached by no fewer than
five spiral staircases around the courtyard.
Ascending the most important of these, the Scala Regia
or Royal Stairs, "its steps so wide and shallow" wrote
Julia, "that a horse can climb them without difficulty,"
we reached the grand apartments, each designed
HYLAND
