Aurora old cottage - Roma

The "Casino dell’Aurora" is the only surviving structure of the ancient Villa Boncompagni-Ludovisi, which was built in 1621 by Cardinal Ludovisi on the site of the ancient Horti Sallustiani. The Villa comprised three buildings, one of which was the pre-existing "Casino del Monte", which was built in 1595 and was later called "Casino dell’Aurora". At the front of the "Casino" stand two colossal marble sculptures of Daci, which probably belonged to the ancient collection of marbles and sculptures of the original Villa structure. Before they were restored by us, both sculptures were covered by uniformly dark surface crusts of various sorts. In addition, several portions of the statues had broken and were at risk of collapsing as the oxidation of the iron pivots used in previous repairs was compromising the solidity of the sculptures. We consolidated the marble by replacing all the old pins, cleaned the surface and filled the lacunae and cracks.
(Photo by P.Soriani)