Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola is one of the most beautiful Renaissance residences in central Italy. It was Cardinal Alessandro Farnese known as the Elder who commissioned Antonio da Sangallo the Younger to build a palace with defensive characteristics in Caprarola, the domain of the family. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger who designed a pentagonal fortress with corner bastions. The works began in 1530, but were suspended in 1546 due to his death. Cardinal Alessandro the Younger wanted to resume his grandfather's project. In 1547 he entrusted the construction site to Vignola, but when the defensive purpose failed, he radically changed the original project. An imposing Renaissance palace was built on the pentagonal plan, which became the summer residence of the cardinal and his court. Vignola had the hill cut with stairways in order to isolate the building, integrating it at the same time with the surrounding area. A straight road was opened in the center of the town below, so as to visually connect the building to the town and enhance its dominant position over the entire town. By 1573 the building was practically completed. Inside the sumptuous residence worked the best painters and architects of the time. The themes of the frescoes were inspired by the scholar Annibal Caro and created by Taddeo Zuccari, who was later replaced, on his death (1566), by his brother Federico Zuccari, Onofrio Panvinio and Fulvio Orsini. Attached to the villa are the "Farnese Gardens" (with the same name as the family gardens on the Palatine Hill in Rome), a splendid example of a late Renaissance garden, created through a system of terraces behind the house, perched on the hill from which the building rises and connected by Vignola with the residence through bridges. The works for the garden were begun in 1565 by Giacomo Del Duca, using the earth from the foundations of the Gesu church in Rome for the terracing, and were only completed in 1630, under the direction of Girolamo Rainaldi. Do not miss the Casina del Piacere, a place created for hunting but which has become a secret and intimate refuge for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese.