RUSPOLI PALACE

PALAZZO RUSPOLI

Via del Corso - Via Fontanella Borghese 56

Begun in 1556 by Giovanni Lippi aka Nanni di Baccio Bigio (about 1513/68)

Continued 1583/86 by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511/92) for the Rucellai family from Florence who sold it in 1629 to the Caetani family

Completed 1633/37 by Bartolomeo Breccioli (?/1639)

Incorporates the former CINEMA ETOILE

Since 1713 it became property of the Ruspoli family who possess it still

It is the seat of the Fondazione Memmo and it hosts temporary exhibitions

STAIRCASE also known as Caetani Staircase 1640 by Martino Longhi the Younger (1602/60) with 120 steps each carved from a single piece of antique marble

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was considered one of the four wonders of Rome along with Palazzo Farnese, Palazzo Borghese and the entrance to Palazzo Sciarra

GALLERY ON THE SECOND FLOOR

Frescoes “Genealogy of the triumphs with deities and allegorical figures” 1589/92 by Jacopo Zucchi (about 1542/96) and busts

PALACE OF FLORENCE

PALAZZO DI FIRENZE

Piazza Firenze 27

1516/30 for Jacopo Cardelli as a Palatium, the representative and ceremonial palace of their real home, the Domus Magna i.e. the nearby Palazzo Cardelli

On the death of Balduino Cardelli in 1561 the palace passed to Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and it became the Roman residence of the Medici family

When the Medici became extinct in 1737 it became property of the Lorena family

Since 1870 it belongs to the Italian state and it has been the headquarters of the Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia (Ministry of Justice) before the construction of the Palace on Via Arenula

Since 1929 is home to the SOCIETÀ DANTE ALIGHIERI founded in 1889 with the aim, as stated in its articles of association, “to protect and promote the Italian language and culture in the world, reviving the spiritual ties of compatriots abroad to Italy and feeding among foreigners love and worship for Italian culture”

COURTYARD and FAÇADE FACING THE GARDEN

Designed by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511/92) for Julius III Ciocchi Del Monte (1550/55) who gave it in 1550 to his brother Balduino Ciocchi Del Monte

ATRIUM

Paintings by Prospero Fontana (1512/97), father of Lavinia Fontana

Frescoes and stucco in the loggia 1553/55 and frescoes in DRESSING ROOM and in the room of the GRAND DUKE by Prospero Fontana

ROOM OF THE ELEMENTS

Fresco in the ceiling “Demogorgon and the separation of the elements” 1574/75 by Jacopo Zucchi (about 1542/96)

ROOM OF THE SEASONS

Fresco in the ceiling “Chariot of the Sun and Aurora” 1574/75 also by Jacopo Zucchi

“The first of the two rooms was influenced by the Room of the Elements by Vasari in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence only with regard to the main idea. Neither the representation of the literary program, nor the decorative arrangement show other affinities with the decoration of the room painted by Vasari. The second room has the Seasons as theme but it is not representing it in paintings rich of figures, but in isolated figures, sat in round medallions. Both the first room, so rich, and the second, simpler, reveal in the fine execution and in the wealth of decorative detail, especially of flowers and festoons of fruit, the miniaturist painter” (Hermann Voss)

CAETANI PALACE

PALAZZO CAETANI

Via delle Botteghe Oscure 32

1564 maybe Annibale Lippi (active in Rome in the second half of the XVI century), son of Giovanni Lippi aka Nanni di Baccio Bigio, or Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511/92) for Alessandro Mattei

“The news about the life and the artistic activity of Annibale Lippi are fragmentary; the historiographical debate is also about the question concerning its involvement in many paternal works. Annibale, as the father Nanni, adhered fully to the style derived from the production of Antonio Cordini da Sangallo the Younger, and this has complicated the problem of attribution related to many of his works” (Maria Grazia Ercolino - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

The building was part of the so-called ISOLA MATTEI (Island Mattei), together with the other palaces of Giacomo Mattei, Mattei di Giove and Mattei Paganica

From the Mattei family in 1683 the building's property passed to the Negroni family, in 1753 to the Marquis Durazzo, in 1760 to Cardinal Serbelloni and finally, in 1776, to the Caetani family, dukes of Sermoneta and princes of Teano, to whom it still belongs today

Two courtyards with ancient fragments of sculptures

In some rooms there are frescoes including “Calumny of Apelles” by the school of Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609) and Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)

CAETANI ARCHIVE

Including over 5000 scrolls and about 200,000 ancient paper documents

On May 9, 1978 in Via Caetani, to the left of Palazzo Caetani, the lifeless body of ALDO MORO was found

Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and academic, five times President of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of the Christian Democrats, the relative majority party at the time. He had been killed by a terrorist group known as the Red Brigades

PIUS IV SMALL PALACE

PALAZZINA DI PIO IV

Via Flaminia 166

1561 Pirro Ligorio (about 1513/83) for Pius IV Medici (1559/65)

Pirro Ligorio adapted the façade to a pre-existing porch of about 1525, maybe by Jacopo Tatti aka Jacopo Sansovino (1486/1570) and to the FOUNTAIN OF THE AQUA VIRGO 1552/53 maybe by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511/92) with a hydraulic system by Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola (1507/73)

The building is also known as PALAZZO BORROMEO as Pius IV gave it to his nephew (his sister's son) St. Charles Borromeo, who had a second floor built and gave it in turn to his sister Anna. After Anna's marriage with a member of the Colonna family, the building passed to them

Now it is the seat of the ITALIAN EMBASSY TO THE HOLY SEE

ROMAN COLLEGE

COLLEGIO ROMANO

Piazza del Collegio Romano 4

1582/84 maybe by Giuseppe Valeriano (1542/96) (some attribute it to Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511/92) for the School of St. Ignatius of Loyola's Society of Jesus founded in 1551 with various branches in the area

It is a massive building covering an area of 13,000 m² (3.2 acres)

It used to house the collection of Anastasio Kircher

The TOWER FOR METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS dates back to 1787

The COURTYARD was designed by Paolo Marucelli (1594/1649)

Among the works of art kept in the college there is a "Holy conversation" 1629 by Andrea Sacchi (1599/1661)

The Jesuits' School moved later to the nearby Palazzo Gabrielli Borromeo and from 1930 in the building of the Pontificia Università Gregoriana (Pontifical Gregorian University)

Since 1870 the palace houses the LICEO GINNASIO ENNIO QUIRINO VISCONTI (High School for Classical Studies Ennio Quirino Visconti), the first high school of its kind opened in Rome

The rest of the building was occupied at first by the Museo storico-etnografico Luigi Pigorini (Historical-ethnographical museum) now in the EUR district and from 1975 by the Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali (Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Heritage)