The story of this place
Denied the papacy he coveted, Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este consoled himself from 1560 by transforming a former convent at Tivoli into the most spectacular Renaissance garden in Europe. Its steep hillside was terraced into a cascade of some 500 fountains, grottoes, and water features—the Hundred Fountains, the Oval Fountain, the thunderous Organ Fountain that plays music by forcing air through pipes, all fed by a diverted river and driven entirely by gravity with no pumps. The engineering was as astonishing as the beauty. The garden influenced fountain design from Versailles to the villas of Europe. Composer Franz Liszt, a later guest, was inspired to write 'The Fountains of the Villa d'Este.' It remains a triumph of hydraulic art.