CAETANI TOWER

TORRE DEI CAETANI
Piazza Fatebenefratelli

Tenth century, erected by the Pierleoni family

It is nicknamed la pulzella (the maiden) for the tiny head in marble of a young girl dating back to the late empire inserted in the brick facing of the Fabricius Bridge

It was part of the CASTLE OF THE TIBERINE ISLAND that had hosted two popes: Victor III (1086/87) for two months with Matilda of Canossa and Urban II (1088/99) for a year, in 1089
At the end of the thirteenth century it became property of the Caetani family who lived here until 1470

After the flood of 1557 that swept the castle, the tower was donated by the Caetani family to the Franciscan fathers
Since 1870 the monastery is an almshouse for Jewish people

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