Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

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 ...

Girolamo Rusticucci Girolamo Rusticucci (1537 – 14 June 1603) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and bishop. He was personal secretary to Cardinal Michele Ghislieri, later Pope Pius V, who made Rusticucci a cardinal. He occupied numerous important positions, i ...

Domenico Fontana Domenico Fontana (154328 June 1607) was an Italian"Domenico Fontana."
''

Carlo Maderno Carlo Maderno or Maderna (1556 – 31 January 1629) was an Italian architect, born in today's Ticino, Switzerland, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica, and Sant ...

joining together several buildings already existing. Due to that, the building was not considered a good example of architecture. Originally lying along the north side of the Borgo Nuovo street, after 1667 the building faced the north side of the large new square located west of the new

Saint Peter's Square St. Peter's Square (, ) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the pope, papal enclave and exclave, enclave in Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo (rione of Rome), Borgo. Both t ...

, designed in those years by

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italians, Italian sculptor and Italian architect, architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prom ...

. The square, named Piazza Rusticucci after the palace, was demolished in 1937–40 because of the erection of the new

Via della Conciliazione Via della Conciliazione ("Road of the Conciliation") is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was constr ...

. In 1940 the palace was dismantled and rebuilt with a different footprint along the north side of the new avenue, constructed between 1936 and 1950, which links

St Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian Renaissance architecture, Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the cit ...

and the

Vatican City Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...

to the center of Rome.

Location

The palace is located in the Borgo

rione A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of (). Formed a ...

of Rome along the north side of

Via della Conciliazione Via della Conciliazione ("Road of the Conciliation") is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was constr ...

avenue, its main facade facing south.Gigli (1992), Inside front cover It belongs to the same block as the

Palazzo dei Convertendi Palazzo dei Convertendi (also Palazzo della Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Congregazione per le Chiese orientali) is a reconstructed Italian Renaissance, Renaissance palace in Rome. It originally faced the Piazza Scossacavalli, but was d ...

, another Renaissance building demolished in the late 1930s and reconstructed in the 1940s east of it. To the west Via Rusticucci separates it from the north

Propylaea In ancient Greek architecture, a propylaion, propylaeon or, in its Latinized form, ''propylaeum''—often used in the plural forms propylaia or propylaea (; Greek: προπύλαια)—is a monumental gateway. It serves as a partition, separat ...

delimiting the square Piazza Pio XII (which roughly occupies the same area as the old Piazza Rusticucci) and facing

Saint Peter's Square St. Peter's Square (, ) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the pope, papal enclave and exclave, enclave in Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo (rione of Rome), Borgo. Both t ...

. The north side of the building borders two other reconstructed Renaissance edifices of Borgo: the Palazzo Jacopo da Brescia and the house of the physician of

Paul III Pope Paul III (; ; born Alessandro Farnese; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death, in November 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era follo ...

.

History

Renaissance and baroque

Girolamo Rusticucci Girolamo Rusticucci (1537 – 14 June 1603) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and bishop. He was personal secretary to Cardinal Michele Ghislieri, later Pope Pius V, who made Rusticucci a cardinal. He occupied numerous important positions, i ...

, secretary of

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V, OP (; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (and from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 January 1566 to his death, in May 1572. He was an ...

(r. 1566–72), who in 1570 appointed him

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of

Santa Susanna The Church of Saint Susanna at the Baths of Diocletian () is a Roman Catholic, Catholic parish church, parish and Cistercian conventual church located on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, Italy. There has been a titular church associated to its site as ...

, bought a palace lying almost at the end of the Via Alessandrina (the road later named Borgo Nuovo) in Borgo on 31 March 1572.Gigli (1992) p. 86 This building, once owned by Roberto

Strozzi Strozzi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Numerous members of the Strozzi family, an ancient later ennobled family from Florence ** Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi (c. 1408–1471), an Italian businesswoman and aristoc ...

(exponent of the banker family from

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

), had been sold in 1567 to

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V, OP (; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (and from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 January 1566 to his death, in May 1572. He was an ...

, who donated it immediately to his nephew Paolo Ghislieri. Ghislieri sold it to the Cardinal five years later with the accordance of the pope. In order to enlarge his building, Rusticucci also bought several nearby houses. Selling negotiation not always finished successfully: an old woman refused to sell her home, forcing the architect to engulf it in the enlarged palace. However, the woman and her heirs could live there until they sold it to the owner of the "Caffè San Pietro", one of the oldest coffee shops in the city.Borgatti (1926) p. 231 The strong-willed opposition of another owner forced the cardinal to renounce to extend the building to the east until Borgo Sant'Angelo, although the works had already commenced. A powerful angular rustication erected at the corner between Borgo Sant'Angelo and Borgo Nuovo testified until 1937 about the Rusticucci's intention. Several years went by after the acquisition of Ghislieri's palace, until in 1584 Rusticucci gave the task to design a larger palace to architect

Domenico Fontana Domenico Fontana (154328 June 1607) was an Italian"Domenico Fontana."
''

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

who, after the death of

Sixtus V Pope Sixtus V (; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death, in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order, where h ...

(r. 1585–90) and the brief intermezzo of

Innocent IX Pope Innocent IX (; ; 20 July 1519 – 30 December 1591), born Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 October to 30 December 1591. Prior to his short papacy, he had been a canon ...

(r. Oct.-Dec. 1591), could not win the favor of

Pope Clement VIII Pope Clement VIII (; ; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 January 1592 to his death in March 1605. Born in Fano, Papal States to a prominen ...

(r. 1592–1605), the task was finished by his nephew

Carlo Maderno Carlo Maderno or Maderna (1556 – 31 January 1629) was an Italian architect, born in today's Ticino, Switzerland, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica, and Sant ...

.Cambedda (1990) p. 38Gigli (1992) p. 88 It is also worth noticing that in the early 16th century one of the houses which predated the palace hosted an

osteria An ''osteria'' () in Italy was originally a place serving wine and simple food. Lately, the emphasis has shifted to the food, but menus tend to be short, with the emphasis on local specialities such as pasta and grilled meat or fish, often serve ...

. In the late 1510s

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

, at that time painting the Vatican loggias, often had lunch together with his aides in a rear room of that eatery.Borgatti (1926) p. 232 The artists often discussed work problems during lunch, sketching different solutions on the walls of the room. When the palace was built, the osteria remained in place, and the owners always took care of the walls of that room throughout the years. Around 1630 the palace housed for a brief time the Collegio Nazareno, one of the oldest schools in Rome, founded in those years by

Joseph Calasanz Joseph Calasanz (; ; September 11, 1557 – August 25, 1648), also known as Joseph Calasanctius and Iosephus a Matre Dei, was a Spanish Catholic priest, educator and the founder of the Pious Schools, which provided free education to poor boys. ...

, and presently in Via del Bufalo, in

Trevi The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) of the European Union (EU) is a policy domain concerning home affairs and migration, justice as well as fundamental rights, developed to address the challenges posed to internal security by col ...

rione. After that, the Rusticucci's heirs sold the building to Mario Accoramboni, member of a family of lesser nobility which had emigrated from the

umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...

n town of

Gubbio Gubbio () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the far northeastern part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria). It is located on the lowest slope of Mt. Ingino, a small mountain of the Apennine Mountains, Apennines. History Prehistory The ol ...

to Rome. Exponents of the family acquired a high rank in the church and in the city: Ottavio was bishop of

Fossombrone Fossombrone is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, in the Marche region of central Italy. History The ancient Roman colony of ''Forum Sempronii'' took its name from Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. Near the Furlo Pass, dur ...

and

Urbino Urbino ( , ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, southwest of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially und ...

, Roberto '' vicelegato'' at

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

, and during the epidemic of 1657, the owner of the palace, Roberto Accoramboni, received the task (personally given by

Pope Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII (; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death, in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, and he held various d ...

) of defending Borgo from the plague. In 1667, the erection of the Colonnades of St. Peter's square by

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italians, Italian sculptor and Italian architect, architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prom ...

made it necessary to demolish the last block of houses ("isola") in front of the new square, situated between the roads of Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Nuovo: this block was named "isola del Priorato", since one of its buildings hosted the

Priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

of the knights of Rhodes.Gigli (1992) p. 144 The demolition created a large new square, which was delimited on the north side by Palazzo Rusticucci. This square, representing the vestibule of Saint Peter's Square, took its name from the building. In 1775 in a shop at the ground floor was founded the "Caffè San Pietro", one of the oldest Coffee Houses in Rome.

Modern age

On 4 March 1902 the palace became the seat of the Belgian Historical Institute, and after a short time was acquired by the

Congregation of Propaganda Fide The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP; ) was a congregation of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church in Rome, responsible for missionary work and related activities. It is also known by its former title, the Sacred Congregatio ...

. In 1940, because of the construction of the

Via della Conciliazione Via della Conciliazione ("Road of the Conciliation") is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was constr ...

, it was demolished and partially rebuilt in the same year with design by Clemente

Busiri Vici Busiri Vici was long-flourishing dynasty of French-Italian architects formed by the union of the French Beausire family with the Vici family of Arcevia. The progenitor of the French side of the dynasty was Jean Beausire (1651–1743), whose desce ...

, exponent of a Roman dynasty of architects.Gigli (1992) p. 90 Through the expropriation decrees, the commercial activities in the palace are known: in 1937 two shops were active along Piazza Rusticucci selling religious articles: moreover, the ground floor of the building hosted a

tobacconist A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retail business that sells tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampe ...

, a bakery, a pastry shop and a restaurant. The bakery was originally the aforementioned osteria where Raphael had painted his sketches. Towards the mid-19th century a

Papal Zouave The Papal Zouaves () were an infantry battalion (later regiment) dedicated to defending the Papal States. Named after the French zouave regiments, the ' were mainly young men, unmarried and Catholic, who volunteered to assist Pope Pius IX in his s ...

was killed in that eatery, which was shut down by the authorities as a result . When the shop was reopened several years after the

capture of Rome The Capture of Rome () occurred on 20 September 1870, as forces of the Kingdom of Italy took control of the city and of the Papal States. After a plebiscite held on 2 October 1870, Rome was officially made capital of Italy on 3 February 1871, c ...

on 20 September 1870, hosting first a pizzeria, then the aforementioned bakery, the rooms were renovated, and all the sketches were lost.

Description

The original building had a harmonious and unadorned prospect, known through Rome's plan by

Antonio Tempesta Antonio Tempesta, also called il Tempestino (1555 – 5 August 1630), was an Italian painter and engraver, whose art acted as a point of connection between Roman Baroque, Baroque Rome and the culture of Antwerp. Much of his work depicts major ba ...

published in 1593, published when the palace was just finished, with seventeen windows and three floors.Cambedda (1990) p. 39 The facade along Via Alessandrina resembles those of coeval buildings, like Palazzo Ruspoli, built in

Via del Corso The Via del Corso is a main street in the historical centre of Rome. It is straight in an area otherwise characterized by narrow meandering alleys and small piazzas. Considered a wide street in ancient times, the Corso is approximately 10 metres w ...

by

Bartolomeo Ammannati Bartolomeo Ammannati (18 June 1511 – 13 April 1592) was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence, Italy. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino (assisting on the design of the Library of St. Mark ...

. Resulting from the union of several small houses, the edifice was very long, especially after the addition of another wing at the west end, along Via del Mascherino, sixty years after the death of Rusticucci in 1603.Cambedda (1990) p. 40 After this addition, the palace was unanimously described by the coeval city's guides as "lacking grace". Its main front had a monotonous and modest appearance: it was long, with three floors and a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

, twenty-two windows and a rusticated

portal Portal may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), a series of video games developed by Valve ** ''Portal'' (video game), a 2007 video game, the first in the series ** '' Portal 2'', the 2011 sequel ** '' Portal Stori ...

. Its area covered . To the right of the entrance lay a rectangular yard with three

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

, doric, ionic and corinthian. On the opposite side lay a smaller square yard, surrounded by a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

with serliana. The reconstructed building is shorter, having only 13 windows along its façade, which shows exposed bricks. The two yards have been rebuilt, while the

cornices In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

of the windows and the portal come from the original edifice. The palace as of today (2016) still hosts the "Caffè San Pietro", which has its seat here since its establishment. A fountain erected in the palace's yard has been moved to the garden lying between the church of S. Alessio and that of Santa Sabina on the

Aventine Hill The Aventine Hill (; ; ) is one of the Seven Hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the modern twelfth ''rione'', or ward, of Rome. Location and boundaries The Aventine Hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills. I ...

.

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Palazzo Rusticucci-Accoramboni (Rome)

Rusticucci Rusticucci is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Girolamo Rusticucci (1537–1603), Italian cardinal *Iacopo Rusticucci Iacopo Rusticucci (around 1200 – after 1266; sometimes Anglicisation of names, anglicized as Jacopo Rusticu ...

Renaissance architecture in Rome Buildings and structures demolished in 1940