PALAZZO VALENTINI
1583/85 Fra' Domenico Paganelli
for Cardinal Michele Bonelli nephew of St. Pius V Ghislieri (1566/72) and known
as Palazzo Bonelli
Expanded in
the first half of the seventeenth century maybe by Francesco
Peparelli (active from about 1626/d. 1641)
In the years
1705/13 it was rented to the Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli who opened a
theater in the building and hosted musicians such as George Frideric Handel,
Alessandro Scarlatti and Angelo Corelli
In 1752 it
was bought by Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali
who arranged a rich library with 24,000 volumes also visited by Johann Joachim
Winckelmann (1717/78)
From 1827
it belonged to the banker Vincenzo Valentini who had the FAÇADE FACING THE
FORUM OF TRAJAN built in about 1830 by Filippo Navone (active first half of XIX century)
The
Valentini family had in it a great picture gallery and lived here until 1870
Since 1873
it is the headquarters of the PROVINCE OF ROME, which transformed the
courtyard and the interior in 1878 by Luigi Gabet
(active 1858/78)
In the COURTYARD
there are four ancient statues with modern changes:
“Valentini
Aphrodite”
“Man with
breastplate and head of Marcus Aurelius” maybe not relevant
“Hermes of
Andros with head of Pertinax” not relevant
“Naked man
with head of Caracalla” not relevant
The palace
houses a collection of ancient statues and paintings which belonged to Vincenzo
Valentini with works by artists such as Carlo Cignani
and Ludovico Stern (1709/77) as well as many
anonymous seventeenth century artists
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
EXPLORATIONS
1,800
square meters (20,000 square feet) residential district comprising
Two richly
decorated houses (domus) of the fourth century AD maybe owned by a judge
or a senator: walls decorated with polychrome panels and polychrome mosaic
floors
Small
private baths
The
excavations were made from 2006 to 2010
Landfill of
the sixteenth century known as BUTTO (throw) where ceramic plates were
discovered, as well as everyday objects and even food scraps
Two
sculptures of “Togati” of the second century AD without head that had been used
as a fill for foundations in the sixteenth century
Stretch of
paved Roman road very well preserved
Two “Fragments
of huge monolithic columns” in Egyptian granite similar to the one near the
Column of Trajan and probably part of the Temple of Trajan, whose exact
topographic location is still the focus of academic debate. The columns had to
have a minimum height of 15 m (49 feet) and perhaps it was even 20 m (65 feet)
high
The area is
beautifully accessible with very effective reconstructions using virtual
reality and an exciting archaeological trail that goes up to the front of the
Trajan's Column
An
example that should be imitated in many other archaeological sites, almost a
waking dream for those who love Rome, made possible thanks to the initiative of
the great popularizer Piero Angela
