Palaces and Fountains of Rome

PALACES OF ROME

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This fountain is in front of the Palazzo Farnese, presently home to the French Embassy (but there are tours). The palace facade, a product of the minds of Sangallo and Michelangelo working for Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese, 1468 - 1534 - 1549 (81)) is as close to perfection as makes no difference, as is much of the rest of the architecture. The palace was the setting for Act II of Puccini's opera Tosca.

LINK TO PALAZZO FARNESE PAGE

Paul III had a drop dead gorgeous sister called Giulia (Farnese), who was the mistress of the notorious Spanish Pope Alessandro VI (aka Roderigo de Borgia). Sadly no portrait of her survives, and one of the few memories of her name is the road named after her which runs down the back of the Palazzo Farnese. The Palazzo itself ended up in the hands of the French Bourbon family through various marriages. It was purchased by the French Government in 1911, but the Italian Government insisted on a 25 year buyback option, which they exercised ! The building was then leased to the French for 100 years for use as their embassy - it will be interesting to see what happens in 2036 !

In the next door buzzing market piazza called Campo dei Fiori is the statue of Giordano Bruno (1548 - 1600 (52)) who was burned at the stake by the Inquisition in the Campo on 17 February 1600 after 7 years of trials. Bruno, who in his youth had been a Dominican friar, was world class bright and world class prickly. He could not understand why everyone could not see that the Greeks were right about the earth circling the sun, and the existence of an infinite number of other suns, planet and moon systems, and he went around saying this and other "truths" much too often and loudly. However, it was his frequently expressed contempt for the church and its mainstream scholastic and other philosophies which eventually sealed his fate .... an observant Protestant said of him that he was "a man of great capacity, with infinite knowledge, but not a trace of religion."

Many of Rome's Galleries are housed in Palaces

Villa Borghese Palazzo Barberini

Galleria Doria Pamphilj

Vatican Galleries Art in Rome's Churches

Next door to the Palazzo Farnese is the Palazzo Spada, whose courtyard contains the "Borromini Perspective". The "corridor" you are looking at is only 9M deep, but looks many times that.

The Castel Sant'Angelo, built by the late medieval Popes on the drum of the mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian, became home to several Popes when they needed a feeling of greater temporal security than that afforded by the Vatican Palace. It is also the setting for Act III of Puccini's Opera Tosca.

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