About the Embassy

Is a representative building of the Umbertine style in Rome, located in the Villa Patrizi district, designed and built by the architect Giulio Podesti, for the co-founder of the Policlinico Umberto I, Francesco Durante.

The interior represents one of the highlights of Podesti's architecture. The entire space is dominated by a tripartite monumental staircase that goes upstairs. The quality of the coatings and materials used internally make the social level of its owner well and demonstrate the elegance and mastery of the architect.

At the center of the atrium there is a two-colored floor mosaic of Hellenistic inspiration, while on its top the "" impluvium "of the Roman atrium gives way to a large skylight. On the back wall emerge two bas-reliefs symbolizing Sicily and Rome, respectively the client's native and adopted land.

The villa was entrusted to Enrico Coleman with the task of frescoing the twenty-nine lunettes of the three walls of the loggia on the first floor with a theme dear to the client, the Roman Campagna. The room was probably dedicated to the study or library, as the lunettes dedicated to each art (music, architecture, painting, astronomy) recall.

Villa Durante was one of the representative houses that were built in Rome as a manifestation of the importance of the state The villa transformed from a private place to a public place. In the early 1920s it was purchased by the Government of the Swiss Confederation to be elected to the embassy in Rome.

At the turn of the years between the second war and the post-war period, its artistic particularity made it destined to be the seat of the Academy of dramatic art directed by Silvio D’Amico. In the 1980s it was purchased by the EPPI (Social Insurance Institution) and became its headquarters until 2016. Since 2016 it has been the home of the United Arab Emirates embassy.