The objectives of the restoration project of the park of Villa Strhol – Fern are recovery, enhancement, restoration and maintainance of the vegetation; it also includes the historical and artistic artifacts inside the park of the villa as an integral part of the historical landscape, as desired by its first owner.

Alfred Wilhelm Strohl Fern, painter, sculptor, poet, writer, musician and patron arrived in Rome in 1879, bought the land with the aim of creating an International European cultural community, hosting numerous artists in the park’s pavilions.

The historical analysis carried out in the preliminary phase gives us a picture of the stratifications of eras and events that have made this park a place of great charm. The villa and its park have witnessed over a century of lively artistic climates of the time understood in the widest sense.

In fact, the villa has welcomed writers, painters, sculptors, scenographers over a period of one hundred years and in a silent and little-known way has contributed to the cultural growth of several generations of artists. The park and the buildings are protected by the Italian law (Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code).

Strohl Fern’s home and studio were located in the private garden area, along with those of his dearest artists. Being the private part of the park, the area was divided into several small areas where it was possible to find his favorite crops, groves and meadows, ponds and caves.

Laurent Kalfala, Mi basta chiudere un attimo gli occhi, I just need to close my eyes for a second.
The daughter of Italian painter Francesco Trombadori recalls her childhood at Villa Strohl-Fern in the 1930s when the garden was an artists’ colony.

Meanwhile, in the artists’ studios park, where all the other guest artists resided, they could dedicate themselves to their artworks in nature.

Finally, the private park of Strohl Fern, in the northern area, was not accessible to guests and hidden from sight by ivy espalier.
It is known that there was a wide lake with a bridge, now filled.
The atmosphere was shady and voluntarily kept “wild” with brambles and lianas clinging to the trees.

An in depth historical research carried out in several archives and by interviewing direct witnesses, combined with the historical reading of the “references” of the landscape, namely the points of high relevance for the orientation of the observer (Kevin Lynch, “The image of the city”) has laid the foundations for a solid restoration project that is able to read and enhance existing tracks and recompose the original settings and atmospheres where possible.

Some of these testimonies are still legible today while many others have been lost. Others again have been documented by historical sources, partially recoverable as memories, and are the imprint that guides the restoration project.

Given the extension of the villa, its enormous arboreal and shrub patrimony and the quality of finds contained in it, the aim is to draw up a project that is able to achieve the recomposition of the unity of the park over the years taking into account both the protection constraints and the functional needs of the school which welcomes more than 1000 children every day.