The Villa Strohl Fern in Rome is located within the larger area of the Villa Borghese park, in the vicinity of the Etruscan Museum.
Villa Strohl-Fern Rome
Address, opening hours and admission
Address: Viale Madama Letizia – Rome. Opening hours and admission: The Villa is only open for special occasions. Wheelchair-accessible: No.
History and description
It was commissioned by Alfred Wilhelm Strohl (1847-1927), an Alsatian nobleman and patron of the arts, who had taken refuge in Rome when the political situation in the Alsace, as a result of disputes between France and German, caused him to seek exile elsewhere.
It is thought that Strohl himself added”Fern” (far, in German) to his name to allude to the distance from his birth-place.
When Strohl died the French state inherited his villa, which, although the exact year of its construction is not known, was built in a neo-Gothic and Romantic style.
Strohl built several studios in his villa and these were, at an extremely low rent, used by artists as famous as the writers Rainer Maria Rilke and Carlo Levi and the painter Francesco Trombadori.
At the moment part of the complex is used by the elementary school of the French Lycée Chateaubriand