SCAPUCCI PALACE

PALAZZO SCAPUCCI

Via dei Portoghesi 18

Built at the beginning of 1500s for Pietro Griffo Bishop of Forlì

It was restored in 1588 by Giovanni Fontana (1540/1614), brother of Domenico Fontana, for Gaspare Scapucci

During the restoration the TOWER OF THE MONKEY of 1014 was included in the building

It was linked to a legend that became famous when told in 1860 by the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne in his novel The Marble Faun:

Legend has it that in the palace lived a monkey who, one day, kidnapped the baby of his master in swaddling clothes, and took him to the top of the tower, making him stick out from the battlements, just for fun, at the risk of making him fall

The parents and the people who were there implored the help of Our Lady who rescued the baby: so the ape, at a call of the child's father, came back down the tower and into the house, carrying the baby safe and sound

From that day the father of the child wanted that a lamp would burn before a statue of the Virgin that he placed on top of the building, as a thanksgiving for the grace received

PATRIZI PALACE

PALAZZO PATRIZI

Via della Dogana Vecchia 37

1603/11 maybe (according to Giovanni Baglione) by Carlo Maderno (1556/1629) or maybe by Giovanni Fontana (1540/1614) by Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605)

Formerly PALAZZO ALDOBRANDINI

The Patrizi family still lives here since 1642

Some of the rooms are rented for receptions and gala dinners

It is in part the Mexican Embassy

SECOND FLOOR

Frescoes 1642/49 by Raffaele Vanni (1587/1673) from Siena

DANCING ROOM

Paintings in the ceiling “Muses” by Francesco Solimena (1657/1747) from Campania, the best pupil of Luca Giordano

“Solimena kept the good traditions of doctrine and style embraced in his rejection of the Baroque, resulting generally in a technical virtuosity, often not immune from statuary effects in his most studied intent of motion. (...) The formula of Solimena was in the first half of the century, more responsive to the courtly artistic conceptions of kings and powerful aristocrats, remaining at the time the rediscovery of the Baroque, recycled in terms of rococo, relegated to the sensitivity of the futuristic bourgeois salons across the Alps or of small Italian collectors of more advanced cosmopolitan tastes” (Giancarlo Sestieri)

GIUSTINIANI PALACE

PALAZZO GIUSTINIANI

Via Dogana Vecchia 29

1585/87 Giovanni Fontana (1540/1614) and his more famous brother Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) for Monsignor Francesco Vento who sold it shortly after, in 1590, to the Giustiniani family, rich bankers from Genoa

Continued by Carlo Maderno (1556/1629), Girolamo Rainaldi (1570/1655) and his son Carlo Rainaldi (1611/91)

It was finished in 1678 maybe to a design of 1653 by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667)

The art collection of the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani ended up comprising about 1,600 pieces of ancient sculpture and about 600 paintings by such artists as Caravaggio (fifteen paintings!), Raphael, Giorgione, Titian and others

When the Giustiniani family became extinct at the end of the nineteenth century, the collection was dispersed and the palace became the seat of Freemasonry

Mussolini wanted to acquire it for the Senate, but the part that overlooks Piazza della Rotonda remained the property of Freemasonry until 1888 when the seat was moved to the Villa del Vascello

Today it houses the OFFICES OF THE SENATE and it is HOME OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

The palace is in the area of the BATHS OF NERO AND ALEXANDER SEVERUS of which there are traces under building

VESTIBULE

“Front of a sarcophagus with lion hunt”

COURTYARD

“Nine ancient reliefs”

ROOM OF THE CONSTITUTION

It was formerly the library, where it was signed on December 27, 1947 by Enrico De Nicola, Alcide De Gasperi and Umberto Terracini the Italian Constitution which became effective on January 1, 1948

ROOM OF THE COLUMNS or ZUCCARI ROOM

Maybe by Francesco Borromini

Vault

“Five stories of Solomon” 1586/87 by Federico Zuccari (c. 1542/1609)

Walls

“Temperance” and fragments of other “Virtues” by Giovanni Baglione (1566/1643), Ventura Salimbeni (1568/1613), G.B. Ricci (about 1550/1624) or maybe Antonio Tempesta (about 1555/1630) and Pietro Paolo Bonzi aka Hunchback of Carracci (about 1576/1636)

FOUNTAIN OF THE ACQUA PAOLA IN VIA GARIBALDI

FONTANA DELL'ACQUA PAOLA IN VIA GARIBALDI

Via Giuseppe Garibaldi

1608/12 Flaminio Ponzio (1560/1613) with Giovanni Fontana (1540/1614), brother of Domenico and expert in hydraulics, for Pope Paul V Borghese (1605/21)

They used marble from the Temple of Minerva in the Forum of Nerva and four columns from the old Basilica of St. Peter

It is the ending fountain of the Acqua Paola aqueduct, restoration of the Aqua Traiana dating back to 109 AD

It is popularly known as Er Fontanone, the big fountain

"Compared to the Fountain of the Acqua Felice, which intentionally inspired by the Acqua Paola, there is a difference even greater than what we have seen in the Sistine and the Pauline chapels in S. Maria Maggiore. The static scheme of the Roman arch here is embedded in a gently oscillating boundary. The means of two pairs of volutes and a segmented pediment generate a 'silhouetted' mixed-line, without stiffness, blending the massive volume with the landscape of the Janiculum Hill. This spectacular great machine perforated by light which, filtering through the holes overlapping the water outlets, introduces an ambiguous indication of depth, is one of the landmarks of the irreplaceable views of the Baroque city. The painter Scipione, in the thirties of the twentieth century happily called it 'the front of Rome'" (Paolo Portoghesi)

The semicircular basin was added in 1690 by Carlo Fontana (1634/1714) for Innocent XII Pignatelli (1691/1700) because the water before then came down the hill in the form of a waterfall

Currently the running water is recycled

Inside there is a small deposit of monuments and tombstones from various areas of Rome

When the water of the Acqua Paola aqueduct came in Trastevere for the first time the population was very disappointed because water was non-potable, and even today it is said that "to be worth like the Acqua Paola" is a synonym of "being worth little or nothing"

FOUNTAIN OF THE ACQUA PAOLA IN PIAZZA TRILUSSA

FONTANA DELL'ACQUA PAOLA IN PIAZZA TRILUSSA

Piazza Trilussa

1613 Jan Van Santen aka Giovanni Vasanzio (1550/1621) with Giovanni Fontana (1540/1614), brother of Domenico and expert in hydraulics, for Pope Paul V Borghese (1605/21)

It was originally on the opposite bank at the end of Via Giulia

It was moved here in 1898 according to the design of Angelo Vescovali (1826/95), who had designed the embankments of the Tiber. It was rebuilt with only slightly more than half of the original material

It is also popularly known as Fontanone di Ponte Sisto (Big Fountain of Sixtus Bridge), whereas in the past it used to be called Fontanone dei Cento Preti (Big Fountain of the One Hundred Priests) as the original location in Via Giulia was adjacent to a monastery called Hospice of the One Hundred Brothers