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

ETOILE MOVIE THEATER

CINEMA ETOILE
Piazza S. Lorenzo in Lucina

1916/18 Marcello Piacentini (1881/1960)

Originally known as CINEMA-TEATRO CORSO

Piacentini designed it originally in a style influenced by the Vienna Secession style but he had to change it into a more "Roman" style during the First World War because critics considered it unpatriotic

It was the first building ever to be built entirely in reinforced steel in Rome and it did not have pillars or columns to support the two upper galleries 

The theater had a capacity of 800 seats and, with the galleries, the capacity was 1,300 seats 

"The entire interior was soberly decorated with stuccos with very soft lines and with bas-reliefs by Arturo Dazzi and Alfredo Biagini. Particularly interesting was the solution of the façade, set on a continuous surface marked by four windows connected by a headband with a delicate frieze in stucco. At the sides the building was completed by two small bow windows while the ground attack was marked by a striking glass and metal canopy supported by chains. Once completed, the project aroused very negative reactions and at the end of a long controversy Piacentini was prescribed substantial changes to the façade" (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

It is part of PALAZZO RUSPOLI

It has been recently modified in a very invasive way and it has become the biggest Louis Vitton store in Rome