'The Capital of the World'

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Monument to Goethe, Villa Borghese

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On November 1st 1786, the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), arrived in Rome. He wrote in his diary: 'Yes, I have finally arrived in the capital of the world'. 

Goethe, who once declared, 'He who has seen Rome has seen everything', stayed in the Eternal City from November 1786 until February 1787 and again from June 1787 until April 1788. He lodged in Via del Corso (118), which now houses the Casa di Goethe, a small museum which occupies some of the rooms in which the writer lived.

​Thirty years later, in 1828, Goethe published his Italian Journey, a fascinating account of his time in Italy. 

On June 23rd 1904, a monument to Goethe was unveiled in Villa Borghese in the presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III (r. 1900-46).

The monument was commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II (r. 1888-1918). Designed by Gustav Eberlein and carved by Valentino Casali, it was presented to Rome as a sign of the friendship between Italy and Germany and in memory of the hospitality the city had shown towards Germany's greatest writer.

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Faust and Mephistopheles