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Rocca Bruno

Rocca Bruno sits 2 hours away from Rome is located in Hadrian’s Villa. An attraction for many of the Italians that live in Italy. The isolated tower rises at the extreme north-west of the terrace facing the valley of Rosicoli. The walls were obtained by alternating a row of bricks with rows of small rectangular tufa blocks (generally two). Externally it looks like a parallelepiped with the entrance placed in the west, framed by two large semi-circular niches. The inside is a hall with an octagonal plan and with bug rectangular niches similar to alcoves and opened on the north, east and south sides: the remaining sides are occupied by semicircular niches.

On the floor are traces of a design in polychrome marbles set to form a pattern concentric circles. The halls are covered by a cloister dome, set on the arches of the alcoves. Originally there as a second floor that externally must have looked like a circular pavilion composed of 16 Doric columns that surrounded a wall carried by cupola. The interior probably had the same octagonal plan as the ground. The upper hall could be reached by means of a ramp. Due to its massive structures, presumably it also had a third floor, which today is completely gone. In the course of time, the tower has been modified: three sides of the ground element was surrounded by a low portico with a forepart covered with a sloping roof. The Jesuit Fathers, once the owners of Roccabruna, creates a chapel in the north-east pillar reachable from outside. At Hadrian’s time the building was probably a belvedere since it is positioned on one of the most panoramic spots of the villa.

From the Tower top the Roman countryside stretching to the sea could be seen on one sides, on the other side of Mount Soratte and the Lepini Mountains. The deep interest Hadrian had for astronomy, makes us believe that the Tower of Bruna might have been used as an astronomic observatory.

The tower resembles other buildings that once existed Rome: the most well-known example is that of the Tower of Maecenas that rose in the gardens of the Esquiline, from which Nero was said to have watched Rome burning. A tower used as signaling point or lighthouse existed in emperor Tiber’s villa at Capri.

Hadrian's Villa - The tower of Rocca Bruna. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.tibursuperbum.it/eng/monumenti/villaadriana/RoccaBruna.htm