Villa Madama

Villa Madama is a Renaissance villa on the slopes of Monte Mario in Rome, Italy, begun in 1518 for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, later Pope Clement VII. Raphael designed the villa as a revival of the Roman villas described by ancient writers such as Pliny, and after his death in 1520 the work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and other pupils of Raphael, though the building was left incomplete when construction stopped in 1525. What was built includes a loggia and a segmented, colonnaded garden court, along with a casino opening onto terraced gardens, and the design proved highly influential for later Renaissance architects even though only part of the original plan was realized. The villa is now the property of the Italian government, which uses it to host visiting foreign dignitaries and press conferences. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/