THE GARDENS OF PAPAL ROME 
From the ramparts of CastelF Sant’ Angelo, Pope 
Clement saw the thick columns of smoke rising 
above his beautiful villa. “This is Pompeo Colonna’s 
revenge,” he said, “ for the castles and villages which 
I destroyed on his estates.” The invaders had indeed 
set fire to the house, and considerable damage was done. 
The grand staircase and eastern portico were blown up, 
the marble hemicycle was partly destroyed, and the 
roof of the upper story fell in. Fortunately the great 
Loggia remained unhurt, and Giulio Romano’s frescoes 
and Giovanni da Udine’s stuccoes escaped injury. A 
temporary roof was hastily erected to prevent further 
damage, and, after the Pope’s return to Rome in 1530, 
he employed Raphael’s former colleague, Antonio di 
San Gallo, to restore the villa. But the grand staircase 
and upper story were never rebuilt, and the colonnade 
of the hemicycle was allowed to remain in ruins. After 
Clement the Seventh’s death, in 1534, his villa was sold 
to the Canons of S. Eustachio, whose property it 
remained until the marriage of Paul the Third’s 
nephew, Ottavio Farnese, to the Emperor Charles the 
Fifth’s daughter Margaret. When the Imperial bride, 
Madama Margherita, came to Rome in 1538, she stayed 
at the villa before making her state entry into the city, 
and was so well pleased with the house that the Pope 
purchased it for her private use. Henceforth Margaret 
made Clement the Seventh’s Vigna her country-house, 
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