Villa Albani was built by Carlo Marchionni for Cardinal
Alessandro Albani, nephew of Pope Clemens XI. Here the Cardinal
gathered a celebrated collection of classical sculpture which was
ordered by J. J. Winckelmann in 1765. Financial needs, ravages by
Napoleon, upturns of life forced the Albani to sell their villa
to the Chigi, who eventually sold it to the Torlonia (the most affluent
family of XIXth century Rome) to whom the villa still belongs.