Villa d’Este

The Organ Fountain, Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Italy. The Organ Fountain uses the flow of water to power an organ that plays music.

Villa d’Este, estate in Tivoli, near Rome, with buildings, fountains, and terraced gardens designed (1550) by the Mannerist architect Pirro Ligorio for the governor Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este. Before being confiscated as his residence, the property had been a Benedictine convent. Ligorio, who was also an archaeologist, conducted a close examination of the terraced site at the temple complex of Praeneste (now Palestrina) as well as excavations at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. His discoveries at these nearby sites influenced his design of (and, in the case of Hadrian’s Villa, supplied the statuary for) the cardinal’s garden.

The composer Franz Liszt occupied the top floor of the Villa d’Este from 1865 until his death in 1886. Today the villa itself is less noteworthy than the spacious park and the magnificent fountains, which are supplied with water by two canals dug especially for the purpose.