L'acqua come specchio di memoria nel paesaggio di Villa Adriana

Water has been a fundamental element in the construction of the Tiburtine landscape around a Hadrian’s Villa. Since its fouda- tion myth, after which the Aniene river took its name, water had represented here a cen- tral resource that men have used and manip- ulated, over the centuries, in different ways, shaping landscape. Thus, water can be as- sumed as a key interpretation tool in order to read, with a trans-scalar gaze, landscape transformations and its complex stratifica- tion. An interpretative operation that reveals a topography of interrelated water figures. A palimpsest of different water architectures will emerge, in which Hadrian’s Villa plays a cen- tral role. A place of hydraulic engineering ex- perimentation but also of architectural expres- sion through water, which had built a unique compendium made of fountains, basins, erupi and nynphea. Water places were relevant not only inside Hadrian’s power representation discourse but have a structural role inside the Villa’s architectural composition. Taking advantage from the theory of the «trasparent form» of Hadrian’s Villa, the most relevant water architectures still present today will be analyzed in depth, showing how inspiring they were for Pirro Ligorio’s Villa d’Este water architectures.