Built as PALAZZO
CAPRINI in the years 1501/10 by Donato Bramante
(1444/1514) for the Spinola family from Genoa
Originally
it used to face the now disappeared Piazza Scossacavalli and it was also known
as PALACE OF RAPHAEL because it was the house where Raffaello Sanzio
(Raphael) (1483/1520) lived in the last years of his life and where he died
As the
nearby Palazzo
Branconio Dell'Aquila by Raphael it became a founding prototype
of Renaissance civil architecture that had many imitations and also inspired
Andrea Palladio
In the
second half of the sixteenth century a new building was built that incorporated
the old which was known in the seventeenth century as Palazzo dei Convertendi
for the hospice established here by Cardinal Girolamo Gastaldi in favor of the
heretics who wanted to become Catholics and here were subjected to a renewed
catechesis
In 1938 it
was destroyed and rebuilt rotated of 90° with only the central balcony and the
ashlar around the door that resemble the original
It is
owned by the Holy See and it is home to the Congregation for the Oriental
Churches
