Porta Alchemica, Rome

Porta Alchemica also known as the ‘Magic Door' or ‘Alchemist's Door' is a curious thing. It stands as the last existing entrance to a 17^th century villa owned by Massimiliano Palombara who was an alchemist and a Rosicrucian. The door is flanked by two grotesque statues.
Legend has it that he was given a secret recipe to turn metal into gold by an alchemist whom had stepped through the door and vanished, leaving behind only fruit turned to gold and the secret recipe.
Palombara was obssesed with cracking the recipe but it was written in a code he could not break. Eventually he had it inscribed on the doors and throughout his villa with the hope that someday, someone from the Palazzo Riario (an alchemist society) would decipher it.