Restorers uncover 16th-Century nude murals painted over by nuns near the Colosseum

Walk toward the Colosseum along Via dei Fori Imperiali and you’ll pass a rundown-looking building, partly wrapped in scaffolding, that almost nobody looks at twice. Inside it, restorers are uncovering 16th-century murals by some of the leading artists of their day, painted over by nuns about 300 years ago.

It’s called the Villa Silvestri Rivaldi, and it’s being described as one of the most significant historical discoveries in Italy this century. You can’t go inside yet, but the story is worth knowing.

So what exactly is it?

The villa was built in the mid-16th century by Eurialo Silvestri, a wealthy prelate and close aide to Pope Paul III. That’s the same pope who commissioned Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. Silvestri hoped a grand house would help him become a cardinal. It didn’t, but the villa outlived his ambitions and went on to belong to some of Rome’s most powerful families, including the Medici and the Colonna, and a future pope, Leo XI.

Its position, overlooking both the Colosseum and the Forum, shaped what went on the walls: gods, goddesses, emperors and battles from ancient Roman mythology. The gardens were just as ambitious, with a nymphaeum of twelve fountains, shell-mosaic alcoves and scented orange trees.

Why were the murals covered up?

In 1660 the villa passed to a religious institution that ran a girls’ school and an orphanage there. The nuns objected to walls covered in nude and semi-nude figures from non-Christian mythology, so the murals were plastered over.

They owned the villa for about 300 years. For a time it was one of Rome’s leading textile workshops. After the nuns left around 1970, it became a community arts centre, a hub for political activism and, for a while, a squat. That chapter left its own trace: restorers have found 20th-century graffiti alongside the Renaissance paintings.

What’s happening there now, and what comes next?

Restorers first tested a small patch of wall between 2002 and 2006 and found a lot underneath, but the owners couldn’t afford to continue. In 2024 the Lazio region bought the villa for €25 million, and this year the restoration began in earnest. The team is using lasers and water-based cleaning instead of chemicals.

Most walls are still plain brown plaster, but in places the paintings are appearing:

• The Hall of Divinities: monumental goddesses in oranges, yellows and greens, some holding armour and weapons. The figure of Jupiter is posed in a way that echoes Christ in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement.
• The Hall of the Emperors: battle scenes with soldiers, cavalry and even a lion, along with portraits of emperors including Titus and Hadrian.
• The Hall of Cupid and Psyche: not yet investigated, so nobody knows what’s in there.

One clarification worth making: the artist isn’t confirmed. Drawings found at the British Library link the paintings to Prospero Fontana, who is the probable artist. Before him, the frescoes were probably created under the direction of Perino del Vaga, whose work can also be seen in Castel Sant’Angelo.

As for the future, progress will be slow, partly because of funding. No one can yet say when the restoration will finish, how the rooms will look, or how the villa will be used. The team hopes it will one day be one of Rome’s most important places to visit, in the same league as the Villa Borghese or Castel Sant’Angelo. For now it is a working restoration site and is not open to the public.

Why this is worth knowing

It’s easy to think Rome’s stories are all on the main sights. But this is a city built in layers, and sometimes the layers are literal: a Renaissance mural, covered by plaster, covered by a textile workshop, covered by graffiti. Each generation left something on those walls, and the restorers are now reading all of it.

That’s part of what makes Rome worth returning to. Even on the most familiar road in the city, there’s always something behind the scaffolding.