Designed in
1660 by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667) for
Monsignor Virginio Spada, Commander of the Bank of St. Spirit
He would
have liked the palace to become the headquarters of the bank against the advice
of the board of the bank
At his
death in 1667 the Spada family was forced to buy the palace and the old Palazzo
della Zecca (Palace of the Mint) by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger was chosen
as the headquarters of the bank instead
Transformed
and raised in late 1800s by Gaetano Koch
(1849/1910) for the Bennicelli Counts
Traces of
the seventeenth-century Borromini's work remain only in the courtyard
Count
Adriano Bennicelli (1860/1925) was a very popular character in Rome at the time
of king Humbert I and was nicknamed Conte Tacchia
“Tacchia”
in Roman dialect is a piece of wood and the nickname refers to the activity of
the Bennicelli family who had become rich by trading in timber. He was a very peculiar
kind of person, famous for the contrast between his elegant appearance and his
very vulgar attitudes
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