HUMBERT I TUNNEL

TRAFORO UMBERTO I
Via Milano/Via del Traforo

1902/03 Alessandro Viviani (1825/1905)
End of the tunnel on Via Milano 1905 by Pio Piacentini (1846/1928) and Giulio Podesti (1857/1909)
End of the tunnel on Via Due Macelli by Angelo Tommasi

It is 347.70 meters long (1145 feet) and 17 m (56 feet) wide

In 1902, during the work, was found, about 160 m (525 feet) from the beginning of Via Rasella, a room lined with white marble friezes, bas-reliefs, architectural fragments, all with traces of fire
From the inscriptions on the pipes of lead archaeologists have been able to figure out the name of the owner of the room: Fulvius Plautianus praetorian prefect, father of Plautilla, wife of Caracalla (211/217)
Some of the many statues found here are now in a section of the museum in the Centrale Montemartini

HOLY ROSARY OF POMPEII

SS. ROSARIO DI POMPEI 
Via Cernaia 14b

1889/98 Pio Piacentini (1846/1928) in eclectic style

It was built in the area of the Campus Sceleratus where the vestal virgins who broke the vow of chastity were buried alive

“Here the term 'eclectic' is revealed in its most complete meaning, with the use by the designer of elements of ancient Roman, Byzantine and Medieval styles, freely assembled with the result, especially outside of a somewhat hybrid product. But it is precisely this formal indeterminacy that instead of placing the building out of time, it places it exactly at the precise historical moment of which it is the expression” (Massimo Alemanno)

SFORZA CESARINI PALACE

PALAZZO SFORZA CESARINI

Via dei Banchi Vecchi 118/Corso Vittorio Emanuele II

1458/62 built for Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI (1492/1503)

It was given as a sort of “bribe” to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who had supported Rodrigo Borgia in the conclave

The Cardinals Sforza and Della Rovere held the functions of Registrars of the Church here and the building was used as Chancellery until Leo X Medici (1513/21) moved the Chancellery offices to Palazzo Riario. Since then palazzo was known as the Old Chancellery

In 1697 the Sforza family intermarried with the Cesarini and since then they unified as Sforza Cesarini, current owners of the building

Modified 1730 by Pietro Passalacqua (1690/1748) with a new FAÇADE ON VIA DEI BANCHI VECCHI

FAÇADE ON CORSO VITTORIO EMANUELE II 1886/88 by Pio Piacentini (1846/1928) in a style that mimics the architecture of the sixteenth century

PALACE OF EXHIBITIONS

PALAZZO DELLE ESPOSIZIONI

Via Nazionale 194

1880/83 Pio Piacentini (1846/1928)

Statues on the FAÇADE by Bertoli, Trabacchi, Biggi, Concetti, Galletti e Fallani

Restoration 1987/90 by Costantino Dardi (1936/91)

After five years of restoration the building reopened in 2007 with more than 10,000 m² (2.5 acres) divided into THREE FLOORS used for temporary exhibitions

It also features a 139-seats CINEMA HALL, an AUDITORIUM (multimedia room for 90 people) and a FORUM (multipurpose room), as well as a café, a restaurant and a bookshop

During the construction a votive deposit was found of which the “Vase of Duènos” was part. It has an inscription in Latin of the early sixth century BC one of the oldest ever found. It is now in the Museum of Berlin

Maybe it was kept in the TEMPLE OF FORTUNA located on the Vicus Longus (in part corresponding to Via Nazionale). According to tradition it had been founded by Servius Tullius

Nearby there was the SACELLUM OF PLEBEIAN PUDICITIA founded by a certain Virginia in 296 BC, a counterpart to that of the Patrician Pudicitia in the Foro Boario

RINASCENTE PALACE ON LARGO CHIGI

PALAZZO DELLA RINASCENTE DI LARGO CHIGI

Largo Chigi

1885/87 Giulio De Angelis (1850/1906) and Sante Bucciarelli (1848/94)

1917 raised with an extra floor again by Giulio De Angelis

1920 cantilever roof by Pio Piacentini (1846/1928)

The INTERIORS were painted by Annibale Brugnoli (1843/1915) with paintings of which unfortunately no trace remains

It was the first department store in Rome, formerly known as STABILIMENTO BOCCONI (Bocconi Establishment) or ALLE CITTÀ D’ITALIA (To the Cities of Italy)

The first elevators and escalators ever in Rome were installed here

It was called LA RINASCENTE (The Reborning One) by the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio in 1917 for its reconstruction following a fire. Similar fate had just happened shortly before to its counterpart in Milan

“He showed independent and unconventional temperament and mastery of the most advanced construction techniques, linked to the industrial production of his time. With the Bocconi building Giulio De Angelis experimented in the typology of the department store, a risk in many ways, including that of opposing rooted habits and social behaviors, and he won this very difficult comparison test, giving Rome the first building of great size fully intended for commercial use” (Giuseppe Miano - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

In 2006 the building was bought for about € 125 million by the Spanish group ZARA and La Rinascente in 2010 moved across the street, in the Palazzo dell'Istituto di Beni Stabili (Galleria Alberto Sordi)

The preparation of the new store lasted about one year and the architecture has been restored to the initial design of Giulio De Angelis, a project advanced for its time in the use of steel structures in construction and with huge and bright windows

PALACE OF THE MINISTRY OF PARDON AND JUSTICE

PALAZZO DEL MINISTERO DI GRAZIA E GIUSTIZIA

Via Arenula 69

1913/24 Pio Piacentini (1846/1928), who in 1932 also designed the expansion of the rear wing with the extra floor

It is also known as PALAZZO PIACENTINI

Specialized juridical library with about 250,000 volumes

DE CAROLIS PALACE

PALAZZO DE CAROLIS

Via del Corso 307

1714/24 Alessandro Specchi (1668/1729) for Livio De Carolis bourgeois scion of a wealthy family of merchants of grain who wanted to build his palace next to those of the patrician families

The exorbitant cost of the construction contributed to the ruin of the family who was forced to put the building up for auction

It passed in 1750 to the Jesuits who gave it to rent to famous people

It was from 1769 the French Embassy and with Cardinal François-Joachim de Bernis it was the site of parties and beautiful banquets that gave to the French cardinal the popular nickname of King of Rome

Later it belonged to the Simonetti and Boncompagni Ludovisi families

In 1833 the attic was added and the cornice was modified

The building belongs since 1908 to the BANCA DI ROMA and it was enlarged and adapted by Pio Piacentini (1846/1928). He covered the courtyard that became the hall of the bank and changed some of the rooms in Art Nouveau style

Wonderful SPIRAL STAIRCASE by Alessandro Specchi considered one of the wonders of Rome

On the external left end side “Speaking Statue of a Porter” one of the six of Rome, to which anonymous messages were posted

It dates back to the time of Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85) although it is erroneously attributed by popular tradition to Michelangelo Buonarroti

In the courtyard there is a cannonball fired by the French in 1849 embedded in the second floor

The lower stretch of Via del Collegio Romano was named after Alessandro Specchi only in 1980, an incredible delay in making a toponymic tribute to the gigantic but unfortunately underestimated Roman architect

“Citing the close-by Palazzo d'Aste of which it repeats the decorative windows and the corner solution, perhaps at the suggestion of the client who wanted a house clearly inspired by the traditional type of mansion” (Paolo Portoghesi)

Rooms of the first floor with ceilings painted by some of the best painters working in Rome in the early eighteenth century:

GALLERY

Now used as a library

“Triptych Bacchus, Venus and Ceres” by Giuseppe Chiari (1654/1727)

“Diana and her Companions” by Benedetto Luti (1666/1724)

“Chariot of Apollo with Aurora and Muses” by Luigi Garzi (1638/1721)

HALL OF MINERVA

“Allegory of caste Love with passionate Love represented by Minerva who takes away Youth from Venus and give it to Hercules symbol of strength and virtue” and “Venus and Vulcan” by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746) from Istria

“At age 21 he moved to Rome. Here he studied the works of Carraci, was inspired by Correggio and attended the circle of Carlo Maratta. He had a good success as the representative of Venetian Rococo style. He produced altarpieces with very pathetic tones, but he was also appreciated as a very precise portrait painter and for his vast landscape scenes, which are the background of historical or mythological events” (Consorzio La Venaria Reale - www.lavenaria.it)

“Allegory of the arts and wisdom” by Sebastiano Conca (1680/1764)

“Aurora” by Andrea Procaccini (1671/1734)

More paintings by Domenico Maria Muratori (1661/1742), Ludovico Mazzanti (1686/1775) and Giovanni Odazzi (1663/1731)