The ballroom: the heart of Villa Hüffer is being restored

The building called Villa Hüffer, which is soon to host the Money Museum, was completed between April 1880 and February 1883 for the German entrepreneur Wilhelm Hüffer (1821-1895), when he and his wife Costanza Grabau decided to abandon Paris and settle in Rome after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war.

Hüffer had his Rome residence built on Via Nazionale, on a plot of land he had purchased in 1879. He commissioned the project to the French architect Jules Antoine Francois Auguste Pellichet (1829-1903), who produced a design in the neoclassical style. The Villa was furnished by the best artisans and cabinetmakers in Paris, and sat amid grounds designed by Édouard André (1840-1911), one of the chief landscapers of the time – celebrated for having designed the public parks and gardens of Monte Carlo, including the gardens around the Casino, and those of Montevideo at the end of the 19^th century.

In the closing decades of the 19^th century and at the height of the Belle Époque, the Villa became famous for the dances Hüffer's wife held for the Roman aristocracy in its splendid ballroom. One of the celebrated guests at these events was Gabriele D'Annunzio, who described the Villa thus in an article from 1885: At the entrance, the wide hall shines with white marble, leading to the study of Mr Hüffer to the left and to a marble staircase straight ahead that gracefully branches to the sides.

One flight of stairs led to the first-floor rooms decorated by Annibale Brugnoli (1843-1915), a highly-reputed painter from Perugia, famous for his representations of subjects from mythology and musical works.

The ballroom ceiling was richly decorated with stucco and still features a large, beautifully preserved oval with a tempera painting by Brugnoli depicting an allegory of Spring. The frescoes mainly portray nymphs and putti playing musical instruments, whereas the vault features dancing maidens.

The walls of the hall were also decorated with lavish stucco work and ornamental pillars in the Corinthian style, putti, vases, garlands and festoons. A large bronze chandelier hung from the ceiling, while the floor was inlaid with polychrome marble.

Ahead of the opening of the Villa, you can browse the photographs taken during the restoration work and admire the elegance of the ballroom!