Palazzo di Montecitorio

Save

Let us know if these details are incorrect

Lonely Planet review

This grandiose baroque palazzo is home to Italy's Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of parliament). Standing on the piazza to which it lends its name, it was built in 1653 by Bernini, expanded by Carlo Fontana in the late 17th century and given a larger façade by Art Nouveau architect Ernesto Basile in 1918. Prior to Italian unification it was the seat of the papal courts.

In 1998 the piazza was restored to Bernini's original plan of a gently sloping ramp articulated by three radiating semicircles. The obelisk in the centre was brought from Heliopolis in Egypt by Augustus, to celebrate his victory over Cleopatra VII and her ally Mark Antony in 30 BC. Originally, it stood in the Campo Marzio, just north of the piazza, as part of a huge sundial, but it was moved to its present site in 1792.