Palace sights in Italy
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Palazzo Donn’Anna
Few buildings fire up the local gossipmongers like Posillipo’s seaside Palazzo Donn’Anna. Incomplete, semiderelict yet strangely beautiful, it takes its name from Anna Carafa, for whom it was built as a wedding present from her husband, Ramiro Guzman, the Spanish viceroy of Naples. When Guzman hotfooted it back to Spain in 1644 he left his wife heartbroken in Naples. She died shortly afterwards and architectural whiz-kid Cosimo Fanzago gave up the project. The grand yet forlorn heap sits on the site of an older villa, La Sirena (The Mermaid), reputed setting for Queen Joan’s scandalous sex orgies and crimes of passion (rumour has it that fickle Joan dumped her lovers …
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Palazzo Pitti
Begun in 1458 for the Pitti family, rivals of the Medici, the original nucleus of this palace took up the space encompassing the seven sets of windows on the 2nd and 3rd storeys. Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo acquired the palace in 1549 and it remained the official residence of Florence’s rulers until 1919, when the Savoys handed it over to the state.
The ground-floor Museo degli Argenti often has no silver on display. Go figure. Come instead to see the elaborately frescoed audience chambers, which host temporary exhibitions.
Raphaels and Rubens vie for centre stage in the enviable collection of 16th- to 18th-century art amassed by the Medici and Lorraine dukes in the…
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Palazzo Te
The main reason to visit Mantua’s other Gonzaga palace, Palazzo Te isn’t its modern art and Egyptian displays, but the fanciful 16th-century palace itself. Built by Giulio Romano, over-the-top rooms include the Camera dei Giganti, one of the most fantastic and frightening creations of the Renaissance, adorned with dramatic frescoes depicting Jupiter’s destruction of the Titans.
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Domus Aurea
A monumental exercise in vanity, the Domus Aurea (Golden House) was Nero’s great gift to himself. Built after the fire of AD 64 and named after the gold that covered its façade, it was a huge palace complex covering much of the Palatino (Palatine), Oppio (Oppian) and Celio (Caelian) hills. Its grounds, which included an artificial lake, covered up to a third of the city. It’s estimated only around 20% remains of the original complex – Nero’s successors attempted to raze all trace of his megalomania. Vespasian drained the lake and built the Colosseum, Domitian built a palace on the Palatino, and Trajan constructed a baths complex on the Oppio using the Domus Aurea as a fou…
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Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Farnese, one of Rome’s greatest Renaissance palazzi, was started in 1514 by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, continued by Michelangelo, who added the cornice and balcony, and finished by Giacomo della Porta. Nowadays, it’s the French Embassy and open only to visitors who’ve booked a place on the biweekly guided tour. Visits (with commentary in Italian or French) take in the garden, courtyard and Galleria dei Carracci, home to a series of superb frescoes by Annibale Carracci, said by some to rival the Sistine Chapel. Booking forms can be downloaded from the website and should be sent one to four months before you want to visit. Photo ID is required for entry. The…
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Palazzo della Ragione
Ancient Padua can be glimpsed in elegant twin squares framed by arcades, the Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, separated by the triple- decker Gothic Palazzo della Ragione, the city’s tribunal dating from 1218. Inside, frescoes by Giotto acolytes Giusto de’ Menabuoi and Nicolò Mireto depict the astrological theories of Pietro d’Abano, with images representing the months, seasons, saints, animals and noteworthy Paduans (not necessarily in that order). Unfortunately, the frescoes had to be restored after fire in 1420 and storm damage in 1756, so most of the original work was lost.
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Villa Jovis
East of the town centre, a comfortable 2km walk along Via Tiberio, Villa Jovis is sure to capture your imagination. Standing 354m above sea level, this was the largest and most sumptuous of the island’s 12 Roman villas and was Tiberius’ main Capri residence. Although not in great shape today, it is still very impressive size wise and wandering around will give you a good idea of the scale on which Tiberius liked to live. This vast pleasure complex famously pandered to the emperor’s saucy desires, and included imperial quarters and extensive bathing areas set in dense gardens and woodland.
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Parco Archeologico di Baia
In Roman times, these 1st-century BC ruins were part of a sprawling palace and spa complex. Emperors would entertain themselves and their guests in a series of lavishly decorated thermal baths that descended to the sea. Among the surviving salubrious snippets are exquisite floor mosaics, a beautifully stuccoed balneum (bathroom), an outdoor theatre and the impressive Tempio di Mercurio, its domed swimming pool filled with giant goldfish. In the summer months, the outdoor theatre is sometimes used for opera performances by the Teatro San Carlo.
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Palazzo Lomellino
The most elaborate facade belongs to the 1563 Palazzo Lomellino. The grey blue exterior is festooned with stucco adornments, while the internal courtyard is dominated by an 18th-century nymphaeum (monument to the nymphs). Upstairs, the remarkably preserved 17th-century frescoes by Bernardo Strozzi were only uncovered in 2002, after languishing for almost 300 years above a false ceiling. They depict allegories of the New World, in homage to the palace’s one-time owners, the Centurione family, who financed Columbus’ voyages.
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Palazzo Chigo-Saracini
The magnificent curving Gothic façade of the Palazzo Chigo-Saracini is in part a travesty, the result of 'restoration' in the 18th and 19th centuries to re-create the medieval feel. From the tower, which is the genuine article apart from its brick crenellations, they say a young boy with particularly good eyesight watched the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 and shouted down details of the home side's progress against the Florentines to eager crowds in the streets below.
(The palazzo is the headquarters of Accademia Musicale Chigiana).
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Cappella dei Magi
Also known as Capella di Benozzo, this tiny chapel flaunts a series of wonderfully detailed serene frescoes (1459) by Benozzo Gozzoli, a pupil of Fra Angelico. The ostensible theme of Journey of the Magi is but a slender pretext for portraying members of the Medici clan in their best light; try to spy Lorenzo il Magnifico, Cosimo il Vecchio and the artist’s self-portrait in the crowd. Only eight visitors are allowed in at a time for a maximum of just seven minutes; reserve your slot in advance at the palace ticket desk.
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Palazzo Municipale
The Palazzo Municipale or Palazzo Senatoriale was built in 1629 by the Spanish architect Juan Vermexio, nicknamed 'Il Lucertolone' or 'the lizard'. On the left corner of the cornice is the architect's signature: a small lizard carved into a stone. In recent years, excavations beneath the building have uncovered the unfinished remains of an Ionic temple, better known as the 'couch of Artemis', to whom Ortygia was dedicated.
The mansion now serves as the city hall. To see the temple's remains, just ask at the gate.
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Palazzo Comunale
Forming the western flank of Piazza Maggiore, Palazzo Comunale (known also as Palazzo D’Accursio after its original resident, Francesco D’Accursio) has been home to Bologna city council since 1336. A salad of architectural styles, it owes much of its current look to makeovers in the 15th and 16th centuries. The statue of Pope Gregory XIII, the Bolognese prelate responsible for the Gregorian calendar, was placed above the main portal in 1580, while inside, Donato Bramante’s 16th-century staircase was designed to allow horse-drawn carriages to ride directly up to the 1st floor.
On the 2nd floor you’ll find the palazzo’s two art galleries: the Collezioni Comunali d’Art…
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Palazzo della Cancelleria
Once seat of the Papal Chancellery and now home to the Vatican’s highest appeals court, this huge Renaissance palazzo was built for Cardinal Raffaele Riario between 1483 and 1513. It’s generally closed to the public but you can usually nip through to the courtyard to take a peek at Bramante’s glorious double loggia. Next door, and incorporated into the palazzo, is the 4th-century Basilica di San Lorenzo in Damaso, one of Rome’s oldest Christian churches.
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Palazzo Pfanner
The privately owned Palazzo Pfanner is a 17th-century palace where parts of Portrait of a Lady (1996) with Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich were shot. Take the outdoor staircase to the frescoed and furnished piano nobile (main reception room), and then visit the ornate 18th-century garden, the only one of substance within the city walls. (Felix Pfanner, may God rest his soul, was an Austrian émigré who first brought beer to Italy – and brewed it in the mansion’s cellars.)
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Palazzo Vecchio
The seat of city government since the 1300s, this fortress-palace, with its soaring 94m-high Torre d’Arnolfo, is synonymous with Florence itself. Medici dukes turned the medieval building into a Renaissance palace in the 1500s, filling it with art and frescoes that still grace its labyrinth of rooms. Spring for the guided ‘secret passage’ (€2) tour, which takes you backstage into the Medici’s private digs. There are also good tours for children that include costumed re-enactments of Medici court life.
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Palazzo Spinelli di Laurino
Dodge past the porter patrolling the entrance to this Renaissance palazzo and you'll find an unusual oval-shaped courtyard. This, together with the imposing double staircase, was the work of architect Ferdinando Sanfelice, whose hallmark staircase design was a must-have for 18th-century Neapolitan nobility.
On the first floor, Parisian Natalie de Saint Phalle exhibits the cutting-edge work of her artists-in-residence in one week exhibitions commencing 23 March, 23 June and 23 September.
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Palazzo di Montecitorio
Home to Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, this baroque palazzo was built by Bernini in 1653, expanded by Carlo Fontana in the late 17th century and given an Art Nouveau facelift in 1918. Visits take in the palazzo’s lavish reception rooms and the main chamber where the 635 deputies debate beneath a beautiful Art Nouveau skyline. The obelisk outside was brought from Heliopolis in Egypt by Augustus to celebrate victory over Cleopatra and Mark Antony in 30 BC.
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Palazzo della Ragione
Founded in 1228 to handle deals brokered and broken in this merchants' piazza, this elegant colonnaded hall of justice bears Milan's bristled boar insignia in terracotta. Empress Maria Theresa added a layer of bricks and bureaucracy with an archive of officially notarised papers, which piled up until 1961. Now the Palazzo hosts temporary exhibitions that don't mind being upstaged by their surroundings.
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Palazzo del Banco di Santo Spirito
The early-16th-century Palazzo del Banco di Santo Spirito was designed by Antonio Sangallo the Younger and was the mint of Papal Rome. The facade of the building resembles a Roman triumphal arch and the two baroque statues crowning it represent Charity and Thrift.
In 1605 Pope Paul V formed the Banco di Santo Spirito (Holy Spirit Bank) which still exists as part of the Banca di Roma.
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Palazzo Villadorata
In the Palazzo Villadorata, the wrought-iron balconies are supported by a swirling pantomime of grotesque figures. Although empty of furnishings, the richly brocaded walls and frescoed ceilings of the palazzo give an idea of the sumptuous lifestyle of Sicilian nobles, as brought to life in the Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard).
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Palazzo Reale
Statues of the mythical twins Castor and Pollux guard the entrance to the Palazzo Reale and, according to local legend, also watch over the border between the sacred (‘white magic’) and diabolical (‘black magic’) halves of the city. Built for Carlo Emanuele II around 1646, its lavishly decorated rooms house an assortment of furnishings, porcelain and other knick-knacks.
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Palazzo dei Priori
The 13th-century Palazzo dei Priori, the oldest seat of local government in Tuscany, is believed to have been a model for Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. Highlights are a fresco of the Crucifixion by Piero Francesco Fiorentino on the staircase, the magnificent cross-vaulted council hall and a small antechamber on the 1st floor giving a bird’s-eye view of the piazza below.
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Palazzo Madama
Seat of the Italian Senate since 1871, Palazzo Madama was originally the 16th-century town house of Giovanni de’ Medici. It was enlarged in the 17th century, when the baroque façade was added together with the decorative frieze. The name ‘Madama’ is a reference to Margaret of Parma, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V, who lived here from 1559 to 1567.
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Palazzo del Podestà
Dating to 13th century, the Palazzo del Podestà was the original residence of Bologna's chief magistrate. Beneath the palazzo there's a whispering gallery where two perpendicular passages intersect. Stand diagonally opposite someone and whisper: the acoustics are amazing. Both palazzi are off-limits to the public unless there's a temporary exhibition on.
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