Description

Essentials about the Quirinal Palace in brief

Located on the Quirinal Hill, the Quirinal Palace is the official residence of the Presidents of the Italian Republic. Before the representatives of the Republic moved in, the palace was the seat of the Italian kings and before that for centuries the residence of the popes. The halls and the beautiful garden of the Quirinal Palace can be visited during a guided tour. Not only for hobby politicians a great experience.

The history of the Quirinal Palace

The client for the construction of the Quirinal Palace was Pope Gregory XIII, who appropriated an existing villa on Quirinal Hill between 1573 and 1585 and had it converted into a summer residence. The place was in any case well chosen, because on the Quirinal usually a fresh breeze blew, one enjoyed marvelous views over to St. Peter’s Basilica and the large-scale palazzo offered a lot of freedom of movement, quite different from the Vatican Palace with its winding corridors and the narrow, musty rooms. Even in ancient times, citizens from a wide variety of social classes had settled on Quirinal Hill, and so there were also countless shrines here, including the temple of the ancient Roman god of war, Quirinus, after whom the hill was named.

Gregory’s immediate successor, Pope Sixtus V, and a number of other popes enlarged the site. After Gregory’s two-story loggia building with tower and belfry, Sixtus had the wing bordering the square and the part of the building with the attached third floor built on Via del Quirinale. Under Paul V, at the beginning of the 17th century, the still open rectangle on the north side was closed and the Dataria, an apostolic office responsible for matters of grace and dispensations, was built at an acute angle from the wing on the piazza. And a few years later, under Urban VIII, the semicircular tower for the artillery was built right next to it, and above the entrance portal the Benediction loggia, from which the Pope gave his blessing. Finally, around 1660, Alexander VIII gave the go-ahead for the construction of the so-called “Manica Lunga”, the “long sleeve”, the seemingly endless wing that lines the Via del Quirinale for around 360 meters and served, among other things, to house the Swiss Guard.

Meanwhile, the palazzo, including outbuildings, annexes and the palace garden, had taken on gigantic dimensions and looked to visitors like a small district in its own right. As an interconnected complex of buildings, the Quirinal Palace is today one of the largest official residences in the world, with a total of around 1,200 rooms covering almost 111,000 square meters.

During the pontificate of Clement XII. in the mid-18th century, the piazza in front of the palazzo was fundamentally remodeled. Where simple stables and sheds had recently stood, the papal stables were built, and in the years that followed, the Palazzo della Consulta (then the papal court, now the Italian Constitutional Court) – significant buildings for the architectural history of Rome, marking the transition from late Baroque to Classicism.

The square in front of the Quirinal Palace

At the edge of the piazza stand the colossal statues of Castor (“horse tamer”) and Pollux (“fist fighter”) on their pedestals. They are Roman copies of a group of figures from the 5th century B.C. The heroes of Greek mythology were sons of Zeus and his lover Leda. They were gladly adopted into the Roman heaven of the gods and worshipped as lucky charms and gods of friendship, helpers in distress at sea and in battle.

Originally they stood in the Baths of Constantine, on the remains of which the buildings of the Quirinal were erected. The proud youths received their final location in 1783, and three years later the obelisk was erected between them, which had formerly guarded the Mausoleum of Augustus. And finally, in 1818, the ancient fountain bowl made of gray granite completed the ensemble. It comes from the Roman Forum, where it served as a horse trough in the Middle Ages.

The Quirinal Palace Gardens

There is also the adjacent palace garden, which is one of the most well-kept green spaces in Rome – no wonder, since it is not open to the public, but can only be seen on guided tours. There are rich Mediterranean flora and exotic plants to admire, including countless palm trees, also water features, statues and entire groups of figures. In the palace itself, during guided tours, you can admire countless halls and salons and see exhibitions on the history and current function of the palace.

Website

palazzo.quirinale.it

Opening hours

Admission fees

Tour 1 (artistic-institutional): Visit of the ruling floor and the ground floor: €1.50

Tour 2 (artistic-institutional and thematic): Like Tour 1, but with a visit to the Vasella (exhibition of tableware and porcelain), the gardens and the carriages: €10.00

Address

Getting there

By public transport:

Bus lines 71 and 117: Stop Milano (Nazionale)

Bus lines 64, 70, 170, H, n8, n11, n70, n98 and n716: Stop Nazionale/Palazzo Esposizini

By car:

There are no parking garages in the immediate vicinity of the Quirnal Palace.