THE GREEN PROJECT: NINE YEARS OF GREAT SPORT, RESTORATION AND BIODIVERSITY
In 2017, in the wake of a new and revolutionary concept, the “Piazza di Siena Green Project” was launched, a sporting event model which found its natural home in the Piazza di Siena Horse Show.
It was a zero-impact bio-architectural project, marking a complete and definitive break with the past, through the use of eco-sustainable materials and an overall vision designed to create a show reminiscent of the competitions of the early 20th century.
The silica sand on the historic oval-shaped arena was removed and the grass turf restored, and, in line with the original design and construction plan, Sport e Salute, the project organiser alongside FISE (Italian Equestrian Sports Federation), signed an agreement with Roma Capitale for the maintenance and upkeep of the Piazza di Siena area throughout the year.
EXPLORE THE MAP AND DISCOVER THE SIGHTS OF PIAZZA DI SIENA
LEGACY, RESTORATIONS AND RENOVATIONS
In 2018, the splendid Ancient Grandstands surrounding the oval-shaped arena were restored in collaboration with Roma Capitale and the Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage; the oval-shaped arena was given back to the city, thus resuming its sport, leisure and socialisation role for residents and tourists alike. Furthermore, the green spaces in the surrounding area were tended to, the walls repaired, and the interior of the Casino dell’Orologio restored.
And that’s not all. The Galoppatoio area was completely restored and returned to its former glory after years of severe disrepair and neglect; it literally came back to life as an equestrian competition venue, but also as a 'Polo Stadium', featuring a spectacular discipline which, together with the Piazza di Siena Competition, is increasingly attracting the attention of the public.
The other momentous change concerned the public: the “Green Project” is a gift to citizens and to equestrian sports fans, who can watch the competitions for free, whether from the stands or on the slopes around the arena.
The positioning of the wooden structures was designed to capitalize on natural light: the idea is to use the sun filtering through the century-old trees to create a fresco of light and colours in constant motion. At the same time, the relationship with art and culture became ever closer, with countless initiatives and “twinning partnerships”: from the Gnam and the Galleria Borghese to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, with contemporary artists’ reinterpretations of Leonardo’s Horse on display along Viale Canonica. Art, culture, but also a consistent commitment to biodiversity, as in the case of the “youthful cypress” planted near the oval-shaped arena.
FROM VALLE DEI PLATANI TO THE MOSTRA DELL'AQUA FELIX
In 2020, the year of the pandemic, the Horse Show was put on hold, but even amidst such dramatic circumstances, the “Green Project” by Sport e Salute and FISE found an extraordinary silver lining, proving the essence of the project’s vision right: schools in the Villa Borghese area brought their young students to the oval-shaped arena for their physical education classes. A ray of light in the darkness of the pandemic. Then, the wooden fence surrounding the Oval was completely replaced.
The restoration of the Valle dei Platani (2021) was an extraordinary project, a pruning and trimming feat to restore the natural living conditions of the enormous 17th-century trees, together with the remediation of the soil “poisoned” by waste and pollution to the point of endangering the very lives of these “Sentinels of Rome’s Eternity”.
Over the years, protective barriers and a guided trail have been installed with the aim of further informing and raising awareness among visitors. This project, like others, was implemented with the invaluable and constant support of the ‘Friends of Villa Borghese’ association, an organisation that
has long-since been passionately committed to the protection of this park, from its architecture to its plant heritage.
In 2022, the biodiversity-oriented work continued with the ‘ZeroDIE’ project: the gravel on the 8-meter wide and 380-meter long ring around the oval-shaped arena was removed and replaced with the same turf used on the competition ground, covering an area of over 3,000 square metres. The image captured from above by drones is spectacular, featuring the “green” shape of a huge “Zero” that signifies “No” to Deforestation, Impact and Emissions, in the form of the acronym DIE. The competition’s commitment to biodiversity was acknowledged by creating the acronym-hashtag #ZeroDIE, so ‘Zero’ together with “Deforestation, Impact and Emissions”.
THE RILIEVO DEL CAVALIERE, THE FONTANA DEI PUPAZZI AND THE FONTANA DEI CAVALLI MARINI
Then in 2023, that turf ring was joined to the competition arena. In the meantime, and thanks to the organisers’ maintenance investment on the area and in perfect harmony with Roma Capitale’s Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, a major extraordinary project was initiated to fully restore and revamp the Mostra dell’Acqua Felice, situated at the corner of Viale Canonica and Piazza delle Canestre, just like the walls around the square. The sight is incredible, as the restoration team’s work brought to light the bas-reliefs, the fountains with dragon heads and the pink marble works of the basins, featuring precious marble from now-exhausted quarries and therefore of inestimable artistic value.
At the same time, Sport e Salute signed an agreement with Roma Capitale for the maintenance of the green spaces in the area stretching from Piazza di Siena to Via Pinciana, while continuing to regularly upgrade the historic oval-shaped arena through a series of overseeding, sanding, decompaction, fertilisation measures and the application of turf bio-activators and root-stimulating treatments This initiative allows residents and tourists to use the arena as a veritable open-air green gym for their recreational and sporting activities.
In the 2024 edition, Piazza di Siena once again became a “museum hub” hosting major art exhibitions in the Villa Borghese museums. For the first time, the Pietro Canonica Museum located on the opposite side of the Casino dell’Orologio, hosted the exhibition curated by Sandro Santolini “Questo è Aquilino figlio del vento”, from May 22 to September 15, 2024, featuring portraits of Rospigliosi’s horses from the Capitoline collections.
At the same time, the Piazza di Siena Competition venue also hosted a sculptural relief – “Il Rilievo del Cavaliere” dating back to the first half of the 2nd century AD, which is currently on display at the Casino dell’Orologio. This work, consisting of eleven fragments before the extraordinary reconstruction effort, had been lying “dormant” in a storage facility since 1989. It was restored thanks to the collaboration between the organisers of the Piazza di Siena Competition, FISE, Sport e Salute and Roma Capitale – Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage. It features a young horseman in scale armour and boots decorated with a lion’s fur, holding the reins of a horse in his right hand. The head, turned towards the horse, although ancient, originally belonged to another sculptural work. The type of armour, the horse’s exquisite harness, the remains of the mysterious horseman and, above all, the fact that the head was not part of the original work, have been at the centre of a veritable mystery, to the point of suggesting that we are looking at a figure of the highest rank, fuelling the debate over his identity right up to the most intriguing hypothesis: that young man may be Emperor Trajan.
The 2025 edition was hailed with the restoration of the “Fontana dei Pupazzi” and with other major conservation and maintenance works of the oval-shaped arena and the areas adjacent to Piazza di Siena. The Fontana dei Pupazzi, one of the symbols of Villa Borghese and Piazza di Siena, was completely restored to its former beauty in collaboration with Roma Capitale and the Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage. This fountain, built between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was the target of a serious theft in 1983: the central sculptural group, consisting of a vase with two cherubs and dolphins, fell prey to art thieves.
This theft followed the earlier removal of the central spout, which occurred at an unspecified time, the same as the disappearance of the four masks that adorned the basin.
Last year, on the final day of the Piazza di Siena – Master d’Inzeo CSIO, a simple “water ceremony” took place: the management of Sport e Salute and FISE, together with representatives of the Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage, brought the fountain back to life, opening the water supply and turning the levers that activate the new water system. The restoration works revamped the fountain’s original appearance and its water jets, as well as its visual significance linked to the aesthetic perception of the Piazza di Siena square and the Viale dei Cipressi above it. Furthermore, in full compliance with modern requirements regarding water conservation and environmental protection, the serious problems of leakage and water runoffs affecting the semicircular area beneath Piazza di Siena were finally solved.
But there is more. The restoration of the Fontana dei Pupazzi sends a message in support of the recovery of stolen art works, which is the focus of the operational activities of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. According to the official figures, in 2024, this special unit officers recovered 80,437 items, seized 2,804 forgeries, and reported 2,621 offences, of which 343 for damaging the landscape. Without considering the priceless cultural value of these items, the sheer economic value of the cultural artefacts recovered in 2024 reached the staggering figure of €130 million, in addition to the €73 million from other seizures handled by this police force.
And here comes the 2026 centenary edition of Piazza di Siena, which brings along another major restoration project: the Fontana dei Cavalli Marini to be unveiled during the Piazza di Siena Rome CSIO, together with other important works to maintain and upkeep one of the most beautiful places in the world.