Palazzo Borghese
The called Palazzo Borghese, after his a keyboard instrument similar appearance as " il Cembalo Borghese " was the municipal housing of the Borghese family. It is one of the most magnificent buildings of Rome.
Cardinal Camillo Borghese acquired the 1560 built in the core and later rebuilt by Martino Longhi the palace in 1604, shortly before his inauguration as Pope Paul V. Having been in 1605 elected Pope, he left the building his brothers Francesco and Giovanni Battista. The new owners were broadcasting Flaminio Ponzio the task of extending it to the Pope family appropriate residence. Until 1613 this created the wing on the Piazza Borghese and also on three sides by two-storey arcades enclosed courtyard. The wing on the Via di Ripetta, " the keyboard of the harpsichord ", also dates from this time. Having Ponzio had died, Carlo Maderno took over to 1614 the completion of the Palazzo. During the second half of the 17th century were by Carlo Rainaldi yet carried out work which affected the interior of the wing on the Via di Ripetta and gardens.
The palace extends to the western wing to the right bank of the Tiber and is located about 500 m northeast of Piazza Navona and about 500 meters west of Rome. The exterior appearance is monumental and representative: three floors and two mezzanine and two majestic, flanked by columns inputs with overlying balconies. The main entrance leads into the aforementioned arcade courtyard, where several famous ancient sculptures are from the Borghese Collection. From the courtyard leads through open double loggia at the back in an idyllic garden courtyard, which houses three richly decorated fountains.
The first major part of the interior decoration of the palace was carried out from 1614 by Paolo Piazza and Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri and completed in 1618 for the wedding of Marcantonio Borghese, the nephew of the Pope, and Camilla Orsini. On the other decorations of the interiors in the 17th and 18th centuries, a variety of artists participated.
The Palazzo was one of the centers of aristocratic Rome. He was home for 200 years the famous Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli going back to Borghese collection of paintings, which was successively enlarged by the Borghese family. She filled twelve large halls of the ground floor, including the burial of Raphael, the hunting of Diana and the Cumaean Sibyl by Domenichino, Arpinos Rape of Europa, Madonnas of Francesco Francia, Lorenzo di Credi, Andrea del Sarto, Lorenzo Lotto, Giulio Romano, Correggio Danae, Titian Education of Cupid by Venus and the Graces and its heavenly and earthly love, van Dyck's Christ on the Cross, and Entombment. In 1891, the art collection was moved to the Villa Borghese, then the Italian State acquired commercially 1900-1902 together with the complete interior.
Historical view
View of the courtyard
Tiber facade ( " keyboard of the harpsichord " )