Chiesa di Santa Maria Immacolata a Villa Borghese, Rome

At Piazza di Siena, this is Santa Maria Immacolata a Villa Borghese, a Catholic church in Rome’s Pinciano district. The church occupies part of the Casina di Raffaello, instead of having a separate building of its own. Prince Marcantonio Borghese commissioned it near the close of the eighteenth century, remaking a farmhouse for estate labourers as a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Mario Asprucci designed the conversion. Its portico has four Doric columns. They give the entrance a calm, formal rhythm.

Felice Giani created the fresco decoration between seventeen ninety-one and seventeen ninety-three. Restoration and completion followed in eighteen twenty-nine, when Pietro Carrarini added further frescoes. The church remains an additional worship space linked to the parish of Santa Teresa d’Avila.