Villa Pigneto del Marchese Sacchetti

Villa Pigneto, also called the Casino al Pigneto del Marchese Sacchetti, was a suburban villa on the outskirts of Rome, Italy, near Monte Mario, completed in 1630 to a design by the Baroque architect Pietro da Cortona for the Florentine nobleman Marcello Sacchetti, papal treasurer under Pope Urban VIII. The three story pavilion had forward projecting wings around a central exedra recalling Vatican architecture, and approached its terraced garden through a dramatic sequence of staircases, fountains and cascading water. The sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini reportedly mocked the design by comparing it to a Christmas crib, and the villa fell into decline after the Sacchetti and allied Barberini families lost papal favor, standing only a few decades before it began to deteriorate. By the nineteenth century the remaining structure had been demolished, and the site is now occupied by the public park of Monte Mario known as Pineto.