The Borghese family was never poor. And after Camillo Borghese was elected Pope in 1605, many members of the family enjoyed luxury. Paul V’s favourite nephew, Schipione Borghese, was particularly fortunate. Schipione was given the title of cardinal and unlimited power. Schipione began to use his new official position to expand his collection. He visited churches and monasteries and took away paintings and sculptures he liked for free, often on the pretext that the works of art did not conform to Christian principles and virtues.
The rich collection needed somewhere to be stored, so Paul V’s favourite nephew began building a country villa and creating a beautiful park around it. Since its construction, the villa has been rebuilt several times, but only slightly, and now we can visit a real Roman country villa, formerly owned by a famous Italian family, and see the works of art collected by the princes of the church.
The Borghese Gallery is undoubtedly one of the must-sees in Rome for art lovers. Antique sculptures, paintings by Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Veronese, Perugino, Rubens, sculptures by Canova, Bernini – all in exquisite interiors that impress the aesthetic taste and fine artistic sense of the collectors and curators of this famous collection
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