MAFFEI MARESCOTTI PALACE

PALAZZO MAFFEI MARESCOTTI

Via dei Cestari/Via della Pigna 13a

1580 Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602) for Cardinal Marcantonio Maffei. The construction was interrupted unfinished in 1601 for the death of the client

It was bought in 1746 by the Marescotti family and transformed maybe​by Ferdinando Fuga (1699/1782)

FAÇADE ON VIA DELLA PIGNA 1865 by Antonio Sarti (1797/1880) for the Bank of the Papal States, which had bought the palace it in that same year

The head office of the bank relocated to the Vatican in 1906 and the building was used for the offices of the Vicariate until 1964

It is now home to Catholic organizations such as Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action)

CHAPEL

Ceiling and frieze painted in the fifteenth century

Seventeenth-century frescoes on the walls

MADAMA PALACE

PALAZZO MADAMA

Piazza Madama

1503 for Giovanni de' Medici, the future Pope Leo X (1513/21) from a building of the fifteenth century

It was enlarged in 1512

It owes its name to Madame Margaret of Austria (1522/86), daughter of Charles V, the widow of Alessandro de' Medici and then wife of Ottavio Farnese, who was the nephew of Pope Paul III Farnese (1534/49). She lived in the palace from 1541 to 1550

Restructured in the years 1637/42 Paolo Marucelli (1594/1649) who worked from a project by Ludovico Cardi aka Cigoli (1559/1613) for the Grand Duke of Florence, Cosimo II Medici and his son Ferdinand II

“The 'facies' (general appearance) of the building reflects the need of the Grand Duke and cardinals to assert a Tuscan identity, adapting it to the Roman location and to the plasticity of the Baroque era. (...) It is apparent from recent archival research that Marucelli alternated the role of designer to the Director in charge of construction, coordinating artists and craftsmen working under his guidance in other important contemporary Roman sites, such as the sculptor Cosimo Fancelli (...) The bad critique of Marucelli began at least from Milizia who judged negatively façade and courtyard of Palazzo Madama and lasted into the twentieth century from Portoghesi to Ruschi. A deeper understanding of his work must necessarily start from the studies of Connors and can lead to see him as an interpreter of a seventeenth century balanced between late fifteenth century classicism, with strong references to the work of Palladio, and baroque eclecticism” (Laura Traversi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

On the FAÇADE there are over a hundred figures of lions including the skin of the Nemean lion carved on the entrance door, which recalls the myth of Hercules and are consistent with the face of Omphale whose braids surround a window

Hercules and Omphale generated Tyrrhenus, mythical ancestor of the Etruscan (in Greek Tyrsenoi), from whom the Medici traced their genealogy

Omphale kept Hercules for three years as his slave. The submission of Heracles was such that he was forced to dress as a woman and humbled to spin wool while Omphale dressed the manly lion skin of Hercules

At the end of 1500 the palace was home of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, who hosted Caravaggio here from 1595 until 1600

From 1737 it belonged to the Lorraine family, then it was the seat of the papal government, the seat of the papal court and police headquarters and from this comes the Roman dialect word madama (lady) as to indicate the police

Since 1849 it was the Ministry of Finance and on the external loggia the extraction of the lottery used to take place

It was expanded in 1905 toward S. Luigi dei Francesi

It is the seat of the SENATE OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC

COURTYARD OF HONOR

Statue “Great squat figure” 1971 by Emilio Greco (1913/95)

SENATE CHAMBER

Obtained from the original courtyard by Luigi Gabet (active 1858/78)

MACCARI ROOM

Ceiling:

“Four round panels” with allegorical figures (trade, agriculture, weapons, arts, sciences and the arts), arranged around a central motif, symbolizing Italy

Along the frieze there are sentences of Guicciardini and Machiavelli

Three large frescoes:

“Appius Claudius the Blind conducted in the Senate”, “Regulus advises the Roman Senate resistance against Carthage” and “Cicero inveighs against Catiline”

Two small frescos:

“Senator Papirius Gallo impassive as the Celts invade Rome” and “Attempt to corruption of the Samnites against Curio Dentato to convince the Romans to peace” all made in the years 1882/88 by the Sienese artist Cesare Maccari (1840/1919)

MARCONI ROOM

Ceiling and seventeenth-century frieze

In the frieze “History of Pius IV Medici (1559/65)” maybe by Pietro Paolo Baldini (about 1614/about 1684)

ANTECHAMBER OF THE BALUSTRADE

Seventeenth-century frieze

Painting “Salome with the Head of John the Baptist” by the Florentine Carlo Dolci (1616/86)

ROOM OF THE POSTERGALI

The name of the room is given by the postergali, or headboards of a seventeenth-century choir preserved here

It occupies part of the area where the church of S. Salvatore in Thermis used to be. It was destroyed at the end of 1800s because, being adjacent to the palace, it could have posed a threat of terrorist attacks

Two paintings with views of the “Roman Forum” and of the “Baths of Diocletian” by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765)

ROOM OF THE OSTRICH

Painting “Etna eruption” by Corrado Cagli (1910/76)

ROOM CAVOUR

Oval in the center of the ceiling “Bacchus and Ariadne” by G.B. Pittoni (1687/1767)

The room is available to members of the government during sessions and sometimes here the Council of Ministers is held

PANNINI’S ROOM

Ceiling fresco “Allegory of the Chariot of the Sun” 1725/26 by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765)

The fresco was originally in the Palazzo Bachetoni which was demolished in 1926 for the opening of Via del Tritone

STUDY OF THE PRESIDENT

“Portrait of a Man” by Gerrit Van Honthorst aka Gherardo Delle Notti (1590/1656)

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar's” by Luca Giordano (1634/1705)

BUVETTE

“Fountain” by Vincenzo Gemito (1852/1929

LIBRARY

Arranged by Gaetano Koch (1849/1910). Since 2006 it is called Geopolitics Room

MACCARANI STATI PALACE

PALAZZO MACCARANI STATI

Piazza S. Eustachio 83

About 1523 Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546) for Cristoforo Stati, Registrar of Rome

Formerly known as Palazzo Stati Cenci

It belonged to the Cenci family, to the Maccarani family and to the counts of Brazzà

Since 1972 it belongs to the government and it houses SENATORS OFFICES, SERVICES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES

COURTYARD

Grotesque decoration of the sixteenth century

LIVING ROOM ON THE MAIN FLOOR

Frieze “Lovers beloved of the gods”

GREAT HALL

Frieze “Stories of Caesar” fresco dating back to the sixteenth century maybe by Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47), and artists of his workshop including Luzio Romano and Prospero Fontana (1512/97), father of Lavinia Fontana

LATERAN PALACE - HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF THE VATICAN

PALAZZO LATERANENSE

Piazza S. Giovanni in Laterano

1586/89 Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) for Sixtus V (1585/90) to replace the old palace where the popes lived for 1,000 years known as Patriarchìo (Patriarchate)

It was converted into a hospital and then in archives

Restored for Gregory XVI Cappellari (1831/46) by Luigi Poletti (1792/1869)

Since 1844 there was the Gregorian Profane Museum, since 1854 the Pio-Christian Museum and since 1926 the Ethnological Missionary Museum. These museums were later transferred to the Vatican

Since 1929 it has the privilege of extra-territoriality and since 1967 it is the seat of the ROME VICARIATE

“The results of the operations of Domenico Fontana, although dictated more by pragmatic spirit, than from an original artistic vision, in fact exerted a strong influence on the visual culture of the Baroque artists, for the evidence of those values​of spatial dynamism, of open geometry, born from the overlap of a new programmatic structure over the complex fabric of the old city. (...) One joint as that of St. John Lateran (...) for the presence of ancient monuments and alignments dictated by the survival of ruins, turned out to be not so much a square as a 'space' rich in multiple perspective indications, so much to propose a new relationship between the viewer and the architecture” (Paolo Portoghesi)

On 28 July 1993 part of the façade of the building and the side entrance of the Basilica of St. John Lateran were severely damaged by a car bomb

Even if the stability of the façade was damaged, it was possible to repair the damage quickly. This attack was seen as a warning to the Pope, who shortly before had spoken in Sicily against the Mafia

From 1987 on the first floor there is the

Museo Storico Vaticano

Historical Museum of the Vatican

PAPAL APARTMENT

CHAPEL AND TEN ROOMS

Frescoes with cycle “Glory of Sixtus V” and “Stories of the Old and New Testaments” executed under the direction of Giovanni Guerra (1544/1618) by several late Mannerist painters including:

Cesare Nebbia (1536/1614), G.B. Ricci (about 1550/1624), Ventura Salimbeni (1568/1613), Andrea Lilio (about 1555/1632), Ferraù Fenzone (1562/1645), Paris Nogari (about 1536/1601) e Matthijs Brill (1550/83)

ROOM OF THE CONCILIATION

Orientation and the dimensions of the hall of the popes of the Patriarchate where the Lateran Pacts signed on February 11, 1929

There is still the “Coffered wooden ceiling” of 1589

HISTORICAL MUSEUM

1) Collection of weapons of the sixteenth and seventeenth century

2) Iconography of the Popes

3) Ceremonial uniform and items of the papal court

LANTE PALACE

PALAZZO LANTE

Piazza dei Caprettari 70

It was built at the time of pope Leo X Medici (1513/21) for his brother Giuliano de' Medici maybe by Giovanni Lippi aka Nanni di Baccio Bigio (about 1513/68) and Giuliano Giamberti aka Giuliano da Sangallo (1445/1516)

In 1558 it was bought by the Lante family originally in Pisa

In the seventeenth century they had inherited assets of Giuliano Della Rovere and added his name to theirs, becoming Lante Della Rovere

It was restored in 1760 by Carlo Murena (1713/64)

In 1900 it was sold to the Aldobrandini family who still owns it

It is now home to the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS

MAIN HALL

Frescoes “Stories of the Romans” 1653 by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62) from Viterbo, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona

LANCELLOTTI PALACE ON VIA DEI CORONARI

PALAZZO LANCELLOTTI AI CORONARI

Piazza Lancellotti 18

1591/94 Francesco Capriani aka Francesco da Volterra (1535/94) for Cardinal Scipione Lancellotti

It was completed in the years 1598/1610 by Carlo Maderno (1556/1629)

PORTAL and BALCONY by Domenico Zampieri aka Domenichino (1581/1641)

“Maderno must have kept at least part of the previous project, because the size of the stairs today correspond perfectly to those described in the contract of 1591. His intervention is clearly recognizable in the loggia on the roof, almost identical to that of Palazzo Mattei, in the large windows of the stairs, in the architectural decoration of the courtyard of the stairs of the hallway, of the loggia on the upper floor and of some rooms on the ground floor. The skill with which irregularities and planimetric asymmetries due to previous constructions were masked is also characteristic of Maderno” (Patrizia Cavazzini)

It is one of the few buildings in Rome still inhabited by the same family who built it

On 20 September 1870 the Prince Lancellotti shut the door in protest “against the Italian aggression to the Papal States” and reopened it only in 1929. In the meantime, someone had written on the columns of the portal in red “V.V.E.” (Viva Vittorio Emanuele - Long Live Victor Emmanuel), a writing still readable today albeit faded

The extraordinary collection of ancient statues and marble reliefs, many of which are inserted in the walls and were completed arbitrarily from the seventeenth century onwards, includes more than 100 pieces

The “Lancellotti Discus Thrower” now at Palazzo Massimo used to be kept in this palace

ROOM OF GENEROSITY

In the vault splendid “Allegory of Generosity” by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582/1647) with Agostino Tassi (1578/1644)

ROOM OF GUERCINO

In the vault “The love of virtue crowns true nobility”1621 Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666) and Agostino Tassi

ROOM OF THE JERUSALEM DELIVERED

Four oval panels “Allegories and stories of Rinaldo and Armida” 1621 by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666) and Agostino Tassi (1578/1644)

ROOM OF THE GROOMS

Grandiose colonnade painted over two floors that opens to fake rural and marine views

LANCELLOTTI PALACE ON PIAZZA NAVONA

PALAZZO LANCELLOTTI A PIAZZA NAVONA

Piazza Navona 114

1552 Pirro Ligorio (about 1513/83) for Cardinal Ludovico de Torres Archbishop of Monreale, who gave a diplomatic contribution to the victory in the Battle of Lepanto connecting the Papal States to the other Christian powers

In mid-1600 the family passed to the Lancellotti family

FRESCOES

“Allegories and stories of Rinaldo and Armida” 1621/23 by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666) and Agostino Tassi (1578/1644)

GRAZIOLI PALACE

PALAZZO GRAZIOLI

Via del Plebiscito 102

1646/50 Camillo Arcucci (active from 1646/d. 1667) for the Gottifredi family, a renovation of the original Palazzo Gottifredi by Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602)

At the beginning of the nineteenth century it belonged to the Ercolani family and it was the home of the ambassador of Austria and of the Infanta of Spain, Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Spain who died here in 1824

FAÇADE ON PIAZZA GRAZIOLI

1863/74 by Antonio Sarti (1797/1880) for the Grazioli family who had recently acquired nobility and had bought the palace in 1824

BALLROOM

“Pomp of the Grazioli family” by Prospero Patti

On the ledge in the corner with Via della Gatta there is a “Marble Cat” from the Iseo Campensis, the temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis which was nearby

A legend says that if one follows the look in the cat's eye, one would find a treasure, but of course no one has ever found anything

The building is leased to Silvio Berlusconi, the greatest destroyer of culture in Italy after World War Two

It is continuously but mistakenly being said that he was voted by the majority of Italians: the data of the Ministry of the Interior, on their official website, clearly state that 13.629.069 Italians voted for him in the elections of 2008. Computed on an electorate of 47,126,326, it constitute a percentage of 29%. Therefore the overwhelming majority of 71% of Italians have not voted for him

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)

GIORGIOLI PALACE

PALAZZO GIORGIOLI

Incrocio Via Cavour/Via S. Maria Maggiore

1888 Carlo Busiri Vici (1856/1925) son of Andrea Busiri Vici

He rebelled to the eclecticism typical and prevailing in the period of Humbert I to combine modern construction needs with the art of the past

GIOLITTI PALACE

PALAZZO GIOLITTI

Via Cavour 71

1886/88 Cesare Janz (known to be active in the years 1886/89) e Gregorio Moretti

So named because here lived Giovanni Giolitti (1842/1928) five times President of the Council of Ministers for a total of eleven years

The long period between 1892 and 1921 during which he dominated the Italian political scene is described by historians as the Giolitti era

GAMBIRASI PALACE

PALAZZO GAMBIRASI

Via della Pace 8/12

1659 Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1616/95) for the Confraternity of S. Giacomo agli Spagnoli, today church of Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore in Piazza Navona

De Rossi followed the directions of Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669) who was renovating the nearby S. Maria della Pace and rearranging the open space in front of it

It passed in the eighteenth century to the Gambirasi family that had the roof terrace built

It became later property of the Institute of S. Maria dell'Anima who still owns it and largely rents it out

The architect Francesco Azzurri (1831/1901) lived and died here. He designed the Palace of the Republic of San Marino, the restoration of the Milvian Bridge and many other buildings in Rome

The 1961 movie Fantasmi a Roma (Ghosts in Rome) was shot here, directed by Antonio Pietrangeli with Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni and Eduardo De Filippo. The definitely spooky building adapted well to a story that had ghosts as chief characters

GADDI CESI PALACE

PALAZZO GADDI CESI

Via degli Acquasparta 2

Built at the beginning of the sixteenth century for the Gaddi family, Tuscan merchants who moved to Rome in the fifteenth century

It was bought by the Rossi di S. Secondo family and then, in 1567, by the Cesi family

The Cesi family expanded the building to its current size in 1587

The exterior was richly decorated with paintings by Polidoro Caldara aka Polidoro da Caravaggio (about 1495/1543) and Maturino da Firenze (?/1528) now completely disappeared

Federico Cesi II Duke of Acquasparta founded here in 1603, the ACCADEMIA DEI LINCEI, the oldest scientific academy in the world, and hosted several times Galileo Galilei

He was the author of the pioneering Tabulae Phytosophicae, a botanical catalog which also included American plants

Federico Cesi also had the merit of introducing in botanical research the use of an instrument called by Galileo Galilei, who had constructed, “goggles to see minimal things”, but that he called the “microscope”

“In the Tabulae Federico Cesi gathered in briefly but precisely the fundamentals of morphology, physiology, systematics, pathology and nomenclature of plants, recognizing the value of features used to determine the concept of the natural system. Cesi was one of the first the clearly understand the value for research of the two new Galilean instruments, telescope and microscope: to the first one he gave himself the name, the second he personally used in his pioneering studies of morphology. Notable in this regard is an outstanding Syntaxis Plantaria (discovered in 1985) which makes him the initiator of the microscopy of plants. In 1625 he published the Apiarium, now very rare, which is the first printed work containing observations of living things examined under a microscope” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

In the GARDEN there was a small botanical garden

The Cesi family sold the building in 1798

The building housed for some time the huge collection of ancient statues formerly housed in the Palazzo Cesi on Via della Conciliazione that would eventually be merged in the collections of the Capitoline Museums

In 1940 it was expropriated by the Italian government and became home to the SUPREME MILITARY COURT

It is now the seat of the Council of the Military Judiciary, the Military Attorney General's Office at the Supreme Cassation Court and at the Appeals Military Court, the Military Court of Appeals and the Court of Military Surveillance

In 1994 in the palace the so-called CABINET OF SHAME was discovered containing 695 files and general ledger showing 2274 crime reports relating to war crimes committed in Italy during the Nazi-Fascist occupation. It was also found a file of the British intelligence called Atrocities in Italy with the secret stamp on it

This documentary material had been collected by the Attorney General of the Supreme Military Tribunal, appointed by the Council of Ministers: these are files regarding the most terrible Nazi massacres of civilians, including: Sant'Anna di Stazzema, the Fosse Ardeatine, Marzabotto, Korica, Lero, Karpathos and Haut-Rhin

The commission appointed to investigate came to the conclusion that there was no conclusive evidence that the investigation of Nazi war crimes had been covered up for “reasons of state” in order to maintain good relations with Germany in times of the Cold War, although some minority members on the commission disagreed

GADDI PALACE

PALAZZO GADDI

Via del Banco di Santo Spirito 42

Built in 1518/27

According to Giorgio Vasari it was designed by Jacopo Tatti aka Jacopo Sansovino (1486/1570) for the Gaddi family, Tuscan merchants who moved to Rome in the fifteenth century

It was also known as PALAZZO NICCOLINI and PALAZZO AMICI from the names of the two families who lived here

Michelangelo Buonarroti lived here for two years (1544/46) and Benvenuto Cellini as well

The roof terrace was built in 1841

Beautiful Renaissance COURTYARD with statues in niches and rich stucco decoration in the upper part