Villa Wolkonsky
Villa Wolkonsky (in Italian, the word villa usually includes not only a large building but also its grounds) is the official residence of the British ambassador to Italy in Rome. The entrance to the villa is located at 4, Via Ludovico di Savoia. History The villa was originally owned by a Russian princess, Zenaǐde Wolkonsky (born Zenaǐde Alexandrovna Belosselsky-Belozersky), who made her home there in the 1830s. Her salon was frequented by Karl Brullov, Alexander Ivanov, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Gaetano Donizetti, Stendhal, and Sir Walter Scott. Nikolai Gogol wrote much of Dead Souls at the villa. Subsequently, it passed through various owners until it was sold to the German government in 1920, becoming the German embassy and ambassador's residence. After the Liberation of Rome in 1944, the Italian government sequestrated the property, and it was placed under the Allied Control Commission. For a short time, it was occupied by the Swiss legation and then the Italian Red Cross. When the British Embassy at Rome's Porta Pia was blown up by members of the clandestine militant Zionist group Irgun on 31 October 1946, the Italian government made the Villa Wolkonsky available to the British government to use as a temporary embassy and