Roma mistery tour step #1 The Magic Door

I have often wondered how much  my father's stories played with  fantasy and imagination  about certain Roman legends.

I would have even doubted that the legends had spread so quickly and they still remain fascinating and mysterious, so I want talk about you about a Roman mystery tour.

Let's start with the first step

ALCHEMICAL ( OR MAGIC ) DOOR - VILLA PALOMBARA

Have you ever heard of the roman magic door? No? Let's go to know it. It's in Piazza Vittorio , in its center is a vast garden, at whose northern end rise the majestic but decadent ruins of the Alexander Severus's  nymphaeum,  commonly known as the Mario's Trophies.

Villa Palombara,  smaller, stood next to it, its position almost corresponding to the area of the current Piazza Vittorio;  Massimiliano Palombara, marquis of Pietraforte  was the owner. 

The marquis was fascinated by the esoteric sciences, some of which hepracticed actively. His economic resources and his social position allowed him to finance a certain number of alchemists. He was also a member of the Rosicrucians.

A young doctor and Milanese alchemist, Giuseppe Borri, came to Rome and joined the club of Villa Palombara. He was expelled from the Jesuit college where he studied for his great interest in occultism.

Borri conducted experiments to find the philosopher's stone. The papal inquisition began to search him and he decided to leave immediately Rome in the night. In his study they found parchments, very complex formulas were reported on them, and  no one was able to interpret. That's why Massimiliano Palombara had them engraved on the access door of his laboratory. 

The only tiny part that was saved was the access portal to the annex, the one that today is called Porta Magica in Piazza Vittorio.
On the door  there aresymbols of the planets (each of which corresponded a god and a metal.

Simbols on the door

On the door is engraved the interesting motto SI SEDES NON IS that you can read from both sides.
From left to right means "if you sit down do not proceed" while from right to left "if you do not sit down so proceed".

Symbols

On the sides of the door we find the statues of the Egyptian god Bes, considered the tutelary deity of the house, of birth and childhood.

Bes, the egyptian god

Historians think  Porta Magica  represented an ideal threshold that the the adepts had to cross to reach the purity of their soul.