The Palazzetto of Palazzo San Marco, the Secreto Giardino of Paul II

The Palazzetto of San Marco, the Secreto Giardino of Paul II

The Palazzetto di San Marco, also called the Giardino di San Marco, was the private garden of the Venetian Paul II, Pietro Barbo (1464-1471), made as part of the papal residence, the Palazzo San Marco, also called the Palazzo Venezia. The garden was surrounded by two storied loggias, fashioned in the form of a trapezoid. There were no rooms attached to the loggias except for one small apartment for the pope’s nephew Marco Barbo, and only one entrance, which led to the pope’s room in the grand southeast tower of the palace.This remarkable trapezoid was attached to the southeast of the palace, in what is now the ferocious traffic “circle” in front of the hideous Vittorio Emanuele II monument. The northwest corner of the garden attached to the southeast corner of the palace, creating a massive protrusion into the street.The porticoes were built of travertine, placed without mortar.The ground floor arcade has the octagonal pillars which became fashionable in the Renaissance, the capitals very elaborate.The upper arcade with shorter columns is supported by scroll corbels, placed above the lower level pillars.The architrave above the second floor has similar corbels.More corbels support the cornice.The garden was wholly private, the hortus conclusus of the pope. In 1911 the city authorities tore the Palazzetto down to facilitate traffic! It was reconstructed to the west, where we see it today, in the form of a perfect square, and rooms were added behind the porticos. Today it is not a garden, just a square filled with large trees, which have destroyed very much of its beauty. In Paul’s time, it was the best and certainly the quietest Giardino in Rome. It is still very quiet, a special historical place very much worth visiting.