Pineta Sacchetti Park

The land of the Pineta Sacchetti Park in Rome was originally the property of the family of Pope Pius V. It was sold in 1598 to the powerful Sacchetti family, who invested great resources in it. A magnificent country villa was also built, commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Cesare Sacchetti, to a design by Pietro da Cortona. The villa no longer exists, nor have the original drawings been saved. We can judge the work only by the numerous drawings, engravings and descriptions of contemporaries.

The land became the property of the Torlonia family in 1861, when Girolamo Sacchetti sold the property to Prince Alessandro Torlonia. In 1956 the Torlonia family sold to a real estate company that had an interest in starting real estate construction projects. However, these projects were blocked by the restrictions imposed by the Municipality of Rome and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

In the early eighties the park was expropriated by the municipality of Rome, which assigned it to a public park and naturalistic oasis. Of the two rural houses built on the edge of the northern part, near the pine forest, one has remained abandoned, while the other has been restored and used as a municipal library of the 13th Town Hall.

In August 2007, a fire of considerable proportions developed in the park, which took several hours to extinguish, with the intervention of three forestry helicopters and firefighters. Another three hectares burned down in September 2009, in a fire of probable arson which, however, spared the trees.

In August 2016, a fire that developed from several outbreaks destroyed a considerable green area in the park, close to Forte Braschi.

Map: Pineta Sacchetti Park