Villa Lubin

Pompeo Passerini designed it with Raffaele De Vico and it was built between 1906 and 1908 to house the Istituto internazionale di agricoltura, the precursor of the FAO, at David Lubin's instigation; its construction caused controversy because old pines had to be felled for it. In 1933 Paolo Rossi De Paoli built the villino Ruffo on the neighbouring piazzale, restructured in 1981, which today holds the CNEL's library of more than 75,000 books, a conference room and the office of the Autorita garante per l'infanzia e l'adolescenza; the small pavilion was the seat of the Istituto per l'Oriente from 1952 to 1960. After the institute moved to the FAO the building reverted to the Italian government, and the CNEL was installed on 20 February 1958; Clemente Busiri Vici restored and enlarged it in 1959, and in 1960 it also became the seat of the Committee of Ministers for the Mezzogiorno. The building appears on the Italian 200-lire coin struck in 1981 for the first World Food Day.