PALACE OF THE ROMAN INSTITUTE OF REAL ESTATE

PALAZZO DELL'ISTITUTO ROMANO DI BENI STABILI

Piazza Colonna

1915/22 Dario Carbone (about 1857/1934) in a monumental and celebratory Eclectic style in the area previously occupied by the demolished Palazzo Boncompagni Piombino of the end of the sixteenth century

The Boncompagni were allowed to rebuild their own building in the area of the Villa Ludovisi, the Palazzo Boncompagni, later Palazzo Margherita, now U.S. Embassy

It was completed and modified in 1940 by Alberto Calza Bini (1881/1957)

Better known as GALLERIA COLONNA and, since 2003, as GALLERIA ALBERTO SORDI in honor of the Roman actor who died in the same year

It is surprising for the contrast between the ornate monumental exterior and the vast comfortable interior space of the gallery

“I told myself to respect a principle (of great value to the public): if the people of Rome used to enjoy as public land the existing dirt area, well, it was necessary that the architect would leave just as much area as public passage in the building to be constructed” (Dario Carbone)

On the central pediment sculptures:

“Groups of Industry” by Giuseppe Guastalla (1867/1952)

“Groups of Commerce” by Ercole Drei (1886/1973)

Interior decorated by Ulisse Stacchini (1871/1947)

MONUMENT TO THE BREACH OF PIA GATE

MONUMENTO ALLA BRECCIA DI PORTA PIA

Corso d'Italia 103

1895 architecture by Carlo Aureli with "Statue of Victory" by Giuseppe Guastalla (1867/1952)

The "Column" is ancient and it was found in 1875 in the Salita dei Crescenzi near the Pantheon in the area where the Baths of Nero used to be

The MARBLE WALL was added in 1920 by Adolfo Apolloni (1855/1923)

During the five hours of the battle of September 20, 1870 49 Italian Bersaglieri and 19 Papal Zuavi soldiers died
Rome was then occupied by the Italian army and became the capital of Italy
Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78), who had already several times excommunicated the king and the Italian Government, on May 16, 1871 with the encyclical Ubi Nos renewed the excommunication and imposed on Catholics not to participate in the Italian elections

ANTONIO CANOVA'S HOUSE-STUDIO

CASA-STUDIO DI ANTONIO CANOVA

Via delle Colonnette 27

1803/06 Antonio Canova (1757/1822), the great sculptor and giant of Neoclassicism who created in this building many of his masterpieces

He bought some houses from the Augustinians of S. Maria del Popolo and united and adapted them as his home

The house was equipped with a huge studio that is now a clinic, the last remnant of the St. James Hospital closed in 2008

In 1912 it was the headquarters of the Unione degli Artisti (Union of Artists) that there had affixed a plaque in 1917 designed by Cesare Bazzani (1873/1939) and executed by Ettore Ferrari (1845/1929)

The "Bust of Canova" is by Giuseppe Guastalla (1867/1952) who copied the portrait of Canova kept in the Academy of St. Luke

The date on the plaque is 2670 but it is neither an error nor a mysterious Maya prediction: it is simply the date 1917 calculated from the founding of Rome in 753 BC, a touch of anticlericalism that would have been unthinkable only a few years later with the reconciliation between state and church of 1929

Now the house is managed by a cultural association that organizes meetings and exhibitions