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Finally, late in the eighteenth century, the papal chair was occupied by a man of culture who felt the charm of the old Cinque
Cento villa in the Valle Giu-lia, and tried to rescue it from total ruin. This was the Ganganelli Pope, Clement XIV, the founder of
the Clementine sculpture gallery in the Vatican. Clement XIV's investigation of Pope Julius Ill's villa showed that the aqueducts
were ruined, the walls crumbled by water, the pavements cracked by fire, while all the wood and iron work was broken or rusted,
and the exquisite paintings, stucco, and gilding spoiled by smoke and damp.* The papal architect, Raphael Stern, made careful
and elaborate drawings from old plans, with a view to a genuine restoration, as Pius VI (who,in 1774, succeeded Clement XIV)
carried on the work. This Pope also felt the fascination of the marvellous, all but ruined pleasure-house, and decided to make
it his autumn residence, but it was too late! Pope Pius VI was carried off by the French Revolutionary forces in 1798 and died a
prisoner in the French fortress of Valence. From that time forward, the villa fell more and more into decay. Its pitiful condition
might have furnished material for endless sermons on the vanity of life, and the ruin of its exquisite decorations fills all artists
and lovers of the beautiful with indignant regret. It has been a veterinary hospital, a cavalry barracks, a storehouse for hay-no
desecration has been spared it. At last the present government rescued what was left of it and converted it into a museum of
antiquities, giving the last ironic touch to its fate by filling the rooms built to minister to the joy and pride of life, with
ancient coffins and relics of the dead.
* A curious story related by Wraxall (" Memoirs," vol. I, p. 183) shows that the Villa Giulia in
its eighteenth century period of isolation and decay proved a convenient shelter for secret crimes committed by persons of
exalted rank.
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