Villa Rufinella

Villa Rufinella, also known as Villa Tuscolana, is a villa in Frascati, Italy, situated highest among the hillside villas above the town. It was built in 1578 by Alessandro Ruffini, bishop of Melfi, and passed through successive owners who altered different parts of it; it became papal property in 1773, and architect Luigi Vanvitelli, commissioned by the Jesuits, gave the building its present appearance. In 1804 Pope Pius VII sold the villa to Prince Lucien Bonaparte, who began the first excavations of the area and the ancient site of Tusculum, sending many recovered artifacts to Paris. In 1817 bandits attempting to kidnap Prince Lucien during a garden party instead seized one of his guests, the artist Charles de Chatillon, prompting Lucien to sell the villa soon after. It later passed to Princess Maria Anna of Savoy and then to Queen Maria Christina of Naples and Sicily, who lived there until 1843, and after 1848 it belonged to King Vittorio Emanuele II before he sold it to the Lancellotti family. The villa suffered heavy damage during the Second World War, and since 1966 it has been owned by the Salesians of Don Bosco, who restored it and converted it into a conference hotel. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/