The Organ fountain

Its construction began in 1568 and finished in 1611 under the Cardinal Alessandro d'Este. It is clearly baroque, so really different from the Renaissance style of the rest of the Villa.
From the architectonic point of view in the high part there is a very high building with baroque lines and decorations. On the front side there are a balustrade of small columns and, just under it, an oval basin. At the beginning, in the central niche of the building there should be the statue of the Fortune or the Goddess of Nature.

The Organ fountain

Then the project was changed and it was placed in the boundary walls in the level part of the garden not far away from the original entrance of the Villa, that is in the southern part.
In the two lateral and smallest niches two statues were placed: Apollo and Diana, later replaced from the statue of Orfeo. Therefore, the Cardinal Alessandro decided to modify the central niche and to buil in its place a little temple in order to protect the hydraulic organ commissioned to the French Claude Venard.
He had invented a device based on which the fall of the water determined the escape of the air from the organ-pipes while in the same time an other device lowered the keys. So the Fountain PLAYED!

In that time this so extraordinary fact astonished the hosts of the Villa. Also the Pope Gregorio XIII, who came here in 1573, was fascinated. Lots of attempts have been tried to restore the dumb organ and finally in last period the efforts have carried out what everyboy expected: the Villa comes back to its original charm.