Situated on the highest and most panoramic point of the Pincio, the ancient Collis Hortulorum, the building was constructed between 1813 and 1817 to a design by Giuseppe Valadier, a Roman architect and town planner who also designed the Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio Promenade.
The Casina was built in the Neoclassical style by remodelling the previous Casino del Cardinale Della Rota, which was in turn built on an ancient Roman cistern. Rich in decoration and two-tone plasterwork, from the beginning the building was used, with varying fortunes, as a meeting place in the manner of the French bistro. At the time of Pius IX it was closed and used as a garden storehouse, while the cruciform attic was used as military accommodation.
Only after the First World War did it become Rome's most 'fashionable' café, a meeting place for politicians, artists, intellectuals and celebrities such as Strauss, Pirandello, Gandhi and King Farouk.
Closed for over 23 years, after a long restoration, it reopened its rooms as a restaurant and wine bar and its terraces as a cafeteria.