On the ancient Esquiline hills, in what was once a beautiful garden surrounding the villa Palombaro, made by Marques Massimiliano Palombaro, member of The Alchemists of Palazzo Riari, a group sponsored by Queen Christina, regent of Sweden in 1600s.

Today from this villa there’s only a ruin and and a real mystery, the hidden magical door, better known as the Alchemist Door.

It is believed that a door is made to mark a success of the Alchemist, which completed the Great Work Magnum opus turning the metal into gold. Some believe that door takes you into unknown, like it did to famous Pilgrim, great Alchemist Giustiniano Bono who visited the villa but has disappeared while looking for a rare specimen of an herb in the gardens and walking through the very door leaving only golden dust. The herb was essential ingredient in alchemistic process, making the metal turn into gold.

The Four Alchemists were Giuseppe Francesco Borri, Athanasius Kircher, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the supervisor Pietro Antonio Bandiera.

The Alchemist door contains the emblem, the signs, and the inscriptions. The emblem has two triangles, opposite to each other making it to look like Oculus or Eye of Providence, and in its inner circle states:

“CENTRUM IN TRIGONO CENTRI”

( “The centre is in the triangle of the centre”)

“TRIA SUNT MIRABILIA DEUS ET HOMO MATER ET VIRGO TRINUS ET UNUS”

( “There are three marvels: God and man, mother and virgin, triune and one.”)

The signs can be interpreted as planets metals: Saturn-lead, Jupiter-tin, Mars-iron, Venus-bronze, Mercury, Antinomy and Vitriol.

The Hebrew inscription states: “A dragon guards the entrance of the magic garden of the Hesperides, and, without Hercules, Jason would not have tasted the delights of Colchis.”

The statues representing Bes, deity of Ancient Egypt, is certainly not original of the villa but was brought there and are silent guardians of this Magical Doors for centuries.

Some may say that these Alchemists were members of secret cult Illuminati and or other occult groups, but we will never know.

Would you dare come near the Alchemist door?

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