The Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644) did not limit himself to promote
the construction of new buildings. He knew very well the difficulties
and the problems of travellers in that age. He crossed the “regina
viarum”, i.e. Via Appia in a long and arduous travel from
Rome to the Castelli, noting therefore the bad conditions of
roads and streets. As there were not streets linking Castel
Gandolfo with Albano and thanks to his passion for long walks
along the lake’s ridge he decided to build two roads:
the Galleria di sopra and the Galleria di sotto.
These streets still have the name Galleria, indicating the
tunnel created by the leafy fronds of the secular trees planted
in a row on their two sides.
The Pope build these two streets by widening some of the ways
running along ancient Roman paths. Their function was to link
the two feuds, Castel Gandolfo and Albano, one street running
high over the volcanic lake and the other in a downward direction
(they were each two-kilometre-long) and to decorate the pope’s
property with their trees, growing in all their beauty. The
paths of the Gallerie is almost unchanged, still running near
the Barberini’s villa.
The most suggestive of the two streets is the Galleria di sopra,
that probably was the Pope’s preferred one during his
visits to the near Convents and during his excursions. The Galleria
di sopra has several points from where it is possible to see
a wonderful panorama (Palazzolo – Malaffitto). It is obvious
what was the pope’s intention: to create a continuous
path, a wall of trees, that through the sights over the lake
which quite suddenly appear to travellers, gives the possibility
to see the panorama imaging it in an infinite space.
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