A RENEWED LIGHT FOR GALLERIA BORGHESE
Nearly twenty-five years after its reopening to the public, Galleria Borghese has launched a significant project to update and renew the external lighting system of the seventeenth-century pavilion, the Italian-style parterre behind the museum, and the magnificent Fountain of Venus. The project was carried out in collaboration with Enel, reaffirming the Museum’s commitment to technological innovation, environmental sustainability, and the protection of its historic and artistic heritage.
The adoption of the most advanced LED technologies, together with an increasing focus on energy efficiency and the conservation needs of works of art, guided the design of the new lighting system.
Galleria Borghese, conceived as a historic building commissioned in the early seventeenth century by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, expresses a refined balance between container and content: a light structure articulated through projecting volumes and loggias, perfectly integrated into the surrounding park landscape. The façades, each with its own identity and articulated by elements typical of the Baroque language, as cornices, niches, and architectural orders, tell the story of the place and engage in dialogue with the richness of the interior spaces. The lighting design becomes an instrument for reading the architecture: light does not impose itself, but follows the space, interprets its geometries, and reveals its constructive and material details. A calibrated projection system, with optics differentiated according to the surfaces, ensures uniform illumination that remains legible even from a distance, restoring the pavilion to a central role in the nighttime landscape of Villa Borghese. The quality of the light, its high colour rendering, glare control, and reduced dispersion provide an engaging and sustainable visual experience, fully respectful of the historical and environmental context, while restoring the beauty and magnificence of the Casino.
The project also extended to the rear area, encompassing the Italian-style parterre and the Fountain of Venus, the symbolic and scenographic focal point of the complex. Submerged projectors integrated within the basin cast a calibrated, enveloping light that animates the water and enhances its presence in space. At night, the fountain becomes a true visual attraction, completing and enhancing the atmosphere of the garden and transforming the area into a luminous scenography of striking charm.