Vatican Museums

Following the Concordat between the Italian State and the Holy See in 1929, the structural transformation necessary to redefine the spaces of the new Vatican City also affected the area of the gardens. The project by the architect Giuseppe Momo (1875-1940), assisted by the botanist Giovanni Nicolini, redesigned the Vatican Gardens over a four-year period.

The aim was to enhance the decorative aspect rather than their markedly more rural character. A series of Italian-style gardens was therefore created, with rigorously ordered flowerbeds, artfully pruned hedges and compositions and colours studied to form geometric designs inspired by motifs from the Renaissance and Baroque tradition. This led to the creation of the striking Shell Garden, with a fountain by Gaetano Roscioli, near the railway station, the terraced garden with multicoloured flowers near the Governorate building, and the charming Rose Garden at the highest point of the hill.