The History of the Biviere Villa Borghese

It all began with a lake with mythological origins: it was Hercules, to help the goddess Ceres who needed water for her crops, who dropped the skin of the Nemean lion to the ground, causing the water to gush out from which the Lake Herculeus, Lake Hercules. Nearby Lentini, from the Greek Leontinoi, preserves the connection in its name. In the Arab era, the lake became Veverè — a watering hole for flocks, a fish farm — then Beverè and finally Biviere.

In the 12th century it became a hunting and fishing reserve for the Knights Templar: a unique fiefdom, not an extension of land but a vast body of water teeming with fish, covering approximately 1300 hectares, which enjoyed long centuries of prosperity - even today the stone piers of the port are the original ones. In 1392, under the reign of King Martin I of Sicily, an edict of gift granted the fiefdom to Ughetto Santapau, ancestor of the Borghese Princes; from them it passed to the Lanza di Trabia family, who assigned it as a dowry to Princess Sofia, daughter of Pietro Lanza and Giulia Florio, who in 1922 married Giangiacomo Borghese, the last governor of Rome. When the waters became unhealthy and malaria raged, it was decided to drain the lake: a massive undertaking that lasted approximately thirty years.

In 1968, Scipione, son of Giangiacomo and Sofia, together with his wife Miki and their four children, chose to move to Biviere with the bold vision of creating a citrus fruit farm on an immense, barren expanse. It was the Princess Miki to plant the first botanical species around the house: within a few years the “Garden that wasn't there” was born, a surprising botanical paradise, so admired that in 1988 it received a visit from the Queen Mother of England, who was so impressed by it that she encouraged the Borghese family to open it to the public.