Work in progress: the nymphaeum of Villa d’Este

In the garden of Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, a national monument since 1913, RIVA has opened the restoration site of the seventeenth-century nymphaeum known as «il Mosaico»: a structure clad in polychrome pebbles in the manner of Roman Baroque gardens, facing the water avenue that climbs to the fountain of Hercules and Lichas.

Pebbles, niches, statues

The intervention concerns the pebble mosaics, the niches with their amphorae and the statues of the nymphaeum. Decades of deposits and water infiltration have dulled the surfaces and weakened the adhesion of whole portions of the cladding.

Consolidate first, then clean

Every phase starts with consolidation: detached portions are secured and unstable parts made safe; only then does cleaning follow, calibrated to the fragility of each material. It is a slow site, made of patience and reversible choices, according to the method the firm applies to every decorated surface.

A garden to give back

The villa, built between 1565 and 1570 for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio and a hotel since 1873, keeps in its Italian garden one of its most fragile decorative features. The restoration of the nymphaeum will give the garden back the original brilliance of the «Mosaico» and its statues made legible again. The intervention is documented in the work’s page and in the site photographs published by the firm.