The Palazzo Poli is a

palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, that was altered in the 18th century to form the backdrop to the

Trevi Fountain The Trevi Fountain () is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi (rione of Rome), Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762 and several others. Standing high and wide, it i ...

History

In 1566, Lelio dell'Anguillara, Duke of Ceri, purchased the Palazzo Del Monte. He commissioned the Palazzo Ceri, in honor of himself, and hired the architect Martino Longhi the Elder. In 1591, Martino Longhi the Elder died and the architect Ottaviano Nonni was hired to finish the original project. The

House of Borromeo The House of Borromeo is an Italian nobility, Italian noble family. They started as merchants in San Miniato around 1300 and became bankers in Milan after 1370. Vitaliano de' Vitaliani, who acquired the name of Borromeo from his uncle Giovanni, ...

inherited Palazzo Ceri and completed multiple renovations and extensions. Eventually, in 1678, the palace was for sale. Purchased by Lucrezia Colonna, who was married to the Duke of Poli, Giuseppe Lotario Conti. Here, the palace changed names again to how it is known today, Palazzo Conti di Poli, or Palazzo Poli. The Conti family was responsible for many more extensions, including purchasing and incorporating of many adjacent buildings which formed the Piazza di Trevi. The son of Giuseppe Lotario, Duke Stefano Conti, completed these renovations, including demolishing the central portion of the building, before 1730 to allow for the building of the Trevi Fountain. The new Baroque style south facade of the building was commissioned by

Nicola Salvi Nicola Salvi or Niccolò Salvi (6 August 1697 (Rome) – 8 February 1751 (Rome)) was an Italian architect; among his few projects completed is the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy. Biography Admitted to the Roman Academy of Arcadia in 1717 ...

in 1731. He hired the architect, Luigi Vanvitelli. As a setting for the fountain, Vanvitelli gave the building a new monumental

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

that contains the giant order of Corinthian pilasters linking the two main storeys of the palace.

In popular culture

In the 1830s, Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya threw lavish parties in this palace.

Museum

Maria Cristina Misiti, director of the National Institute of Graphics, had the idea to turn the building into a museum to help visitors learn more about the history of Rome and its inhabitants. The Palazzo Poli houses the institute's collection of

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

plates dated from the sixteenth century to the present.

References

External links

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Turismoroma: Poli Palace - Trevi fountain

Poli DNA polymerase iota is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''POLI'' gene. It is found in higher eukaryotes, and is believed to have arisen from a gene duplication from Pol η. Pol ι, is a Y family polymerase that is involved in transl ...

Rome R. II Trevi Luigi Vanvitelli buildings Baroque architecture in Rome {{Italy-palace-stub