The complex including the Serra Moresca and a tower, is located inside the Villa Torlonia Park in Rome. A restoration of the complex was finished in 2013, and the Serra and tower can be visited again.
A brief history of the Serra Moresca
The Serra Moresca (“Moorish Greenhouse”) was built after a design by the landscape architect Giuseppe Jappelli, with the help of Giacomo Caneva. Its construction lasted from 1839 till 1840. Prince Alessandro Torlonia had tasked Jappelli to construct an exotic-looking building surrounded by tropical plants, such as palm trees, agaves and aloes. The painter Caneva was responsible for the interior decorations. He got his inspiration from the book “The Arabian Antiquities of Spain” by the Irish architect James Canavah Murphy.
In 1905, a floor was added at the back of the building, in order to provide housing for the gardener. In the 1920s, this became the residence of the staff occupied with maintaining the chicken coop.
The Serra Moresca functioned as a venue for cultural events. Large planters were placed against the walls, topped by fluted wooden columns that reached the ceiling. Today, iron planters containing various varieties of palm trees and other species suited to warm climates occupy the interior.
Of the artificial grotto that used to be part of the complex, only some brickwork and a couple of large tuff stone buttresses remain.
The tower used to have a mechanism whereby a dining table, food and all, was pulled up from the kitchen through an opening in the floor. Like the Serra, it is decorated with colourful windows and all sorts of geometric designs.
Sources
- Information panels in the Serra Moresca itself.
- Official Villa Torlonia website
- Photos are all my own.