While many of Europe’s most popular museums and landmarks are capping visitor numbers, one art gallery in Rome is actually looking to increase the number of visitors that come through its doors.
It’s the Borghese Gallery, a seventeenth-century villa home to masterpieces of the Baroque era by Bernini, Caravaggio Raphael and Titian, and surrounded by gorgeous landscape gardens which are peppered with statues and ornate fountains.
Right now, 180 visitors are allowed into the gallery at any one time, and the time slots are often booked out well in advance. Given Rome welcomed 22 million visitors in 2025, there’s obviously a lot of competition for a ticket.
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But that might not be the case soon, as the museum has proposed creating a new building adjacent to the villa in order to showcase more art and allow more people to visit within one window.
However, several heritage groups have taken issue with the proposal, and Friends of Villa Borghese took to Facebook to describe the plans as an ‘outrage’, according to Reuters.
Tomaso Montanari, a professor and expert on Roman Baroque, said: ‘The mere idea of injecting one cubic metre of concrete into the Borghese park … amounts to a resounding blasphemy against the nation’s cultural heritage.’ They don’t sound too happy, do they?
Even if the proposal goes ahead, construction work in the Borghese grounds is still a long way off, and so far, Rome City Council have merely launched preliminary research into the proposal’s potential.
A statement from the body said they were keen to be involved to ensure all works are carried out with Villa Borghese’s best interests considered. Keep an eye on our travel news page for the latest on this story.
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