This is the residence of the President of the Republic of Italy. It was designed by a number of well known architects and built over a span of two centuries. In the mid 16th century, the Farnese Pope Paul III was guest at the Villa Carafa on the Quirinal Hill and, while there, he grew to like this part of Rome.
This hill, so close the Campidoglio the heart of secular Rome, was secluded amidst greenery and freshened by Rome's westerly breezes, an ideal site he thought for the pope's summer residence. After Paul, Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Mascherino to build the residence, incorporating the Villa Carafa- D'Este into it. Later on, Sixtus V acquired the entire zone and had Domenico Fontana complete the building, more or less as it stands today.
Maderno and Bernini carried out some modifications for Pope Paul V at the start of the 17th century, constructing the entrance portal and the Benediction Loggia.
Forced by the Thirty Years' War to rethink the Papal Power's defenses, Urban VIII decided to have the whole building fortified and constructed the small tower. However, these fortifications were not able to save Pius VII who was arrested by the French when they captured the palace. It became Napoleon's Imperial Residence until 1814, when the Popes were able to return.
All the conclaves of the 19th century were held in this palace and Pope Pius IX was in residence here in 1870 when Rome became Italy's capital.
In accordance with King Vittorio Emanuele II's wishes, this palace eventually became the Royal family's residence and remained so until the 1946 referendum made Italy a republic.

The square takes its name from the Quirinal Palace and, like most parts of Rome, is the result of a succession of reconstructions. The fulcrum of the piazza is the Fontana dei Dioscuri, so called because of the two great ancient Roman statues, Castor and Pollux, which embellish the fountain.
They were found in the Baths of Constantine and the basin of the fountain was brought here from the Roman Forum.
The obelisk, which used to decorate Augustus' mausoleum, was only placed here with the fountain at a later date.
Looking onto the piazza are several noteworthy buildings. The most significant, obviously, is the Quirinal Palace itself. Facing this is the Palazzo delle Scuderie, the pope's stables, where his numerous carriages used to be kept. After its restoration by Gae Aulenti, the building is now used as an exhibition center.
On the opposite side of the piazza is the Palazzo della Consulta, built in the 18th century to house the papal Court of the Consulta. Today it is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Italy.
Immediately after this, on the very slope of the hill, is the Palazzo Pallavicini- Pospigliosi, which contains the famous fresco by Guido Reni of the Casino dell' Aurora. This fresco is considered a masterpiece of the classical current present in 17th century painting.

This church is one of the numerous creations of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Any problems associated with the lateral view of the façade were resolved with a contrapuntal play of concave and convex lines, which invite the observer inside.
The interior of the church looks like a stage setting: chapels open off the nave but your attention is drawn to the dynamism of the dome. This pearl of the baroque, as Sant'Andrea has been called, is decorated with marble of exceptional beauty.
Opposite the church is the side entrance to the Quirinale Palace's famous gardens, among the most beautiful gardens in Italy. The President opens them to the public on June 2 to celebrate the national holiday celebrating the Republic.
Continuing along the same street, you arrive at the church of San Carlo, another Roman baroque creation.

The church is known as San Carlino because it is so tiny: its dimensions are no greater than the area taken up by just one of the great pillars that hold up St. Peter's dome. A masterpiece by Borromini, the greatest of the baroque architects, the work of this church was started in 1638 and followed closely by Borromini himself for it was a creation in a new and revolutionary structural language.
Unfortunately the building was incomplete when he died. The lines of the façade echo the troubled spirit of this extraordinary personality. Tormented in life as he was in art, made worse by his rivalry with Bernini on the Roman art scene, Borromini committed suicide, which, tragically, prevented his burial in the small chapel he had prepared inside this church.
The four fountains: This crossroads is named after the fountains that decorate its four corners and marks the highest point on Rome's highest hill. The Quirinal Hill was the site of temples, patrician residences and the sumptuous Baths of Constantine in ancient times.
Like the other hills that were abandoned in the Middle Ages, this hill regained its importance only in the 16th century when it was renamed Monte Cavallo after the great equestrian statues of Castor and Pollux. Found in the ruins of the baths, these statues were re-utilized for the fountain in front of the Palazzo Quirinale.
The four fountains at this crossroads were designed by Domenico Fontana for Pope Sixtus V and are a perfect piece of urban planning: they are right at the center of an enchanting triangle created by the obelisks of Santa Maria Maggiore, Piazza del Quirinale and Trinita' de Monti.

One of the most munificent 17th century cardinals, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, had this church built and dedicated to an image of the Virgin Mary that had been carried into battle. Through her intercession, the Hapsburg Emperor Ferdinand II had been victorious against the protestant city of Prague in 1620.
The plain, solemn façade contrasts greatly with the joyful baroque interior; there, in the left-hand transept, the famous Cornaro Chapel is located, one of Bernini's most exquisite theatrical creations. With this masterpiece, the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Bernini moved closer to his goal of achieving a fusion of the arts by creating a new type of visual and emotional synthesis.
The whole sculpture is conceived as a grandiose high relief suspended in air and bathed in light whose golden rays come from a hidden source above.
The brilliant whiteness of the marble and the intensity of the light exalt the spiritual value of the Saint's mystical experience, profoundly affecting the senses and the emotions.
The two lateral boxes, in which you can see statues of this work's patrons, only emphasize the theatrical concept of the composition.
If a work of art can lend itself to arousing the feelings of ardent exaltation and transcendence, the goal of baroque artists, then Bernini achieved this aim here in a masterly fashion: he managed to portray an expression of intensity on the Saint's face never before attempted.

The Trevi Fountain of Rome, realized under the Pontificate of Clemente XII around 1735 after Christ along the "Palazzo Poli", is the work of the architect Nicolò Salvi and it is still nowadays alimented by the water supply system Virgin projected in 19 before Christ by the consul Agrippa.
Concerning the etymology of the monument, there are at least two hypothesis that both have their origins in the antique story of Rome: some people sustain that the name of the Fountain of Trevi comes from "Trivia", the girl who would have indicated to the General Marco Agrippa, coming back to Rome after the victorious battle of Anzio against Antonio, the source which then will serve as the spring, while others retain probable the alliteration of the Latin toponym "regio trivii", through which presumably was indicated either the intersection of three roads close to which surging the Roman fountain or the characteristic itself of the source to have three distinct jets of water.
The first work of arrangement and restoration of the water supply system is realized by Pope Nicolò V Parentucelli and Leon Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino are charged of the projects; afterwards Urbano VIII Barberini charges Bernini to project a new source, who will start by destroying the pre-existing Renaissance elevation.
The works, however, stop to the realization of a basement at exedra, with a front tank in which join three mouths of water and only in 1730 after Christ, 90 years later, Pope Clemente XII will banish a competition for the definitive realization of the fountain of Trevi won by Nicola Salvi.
The attic of the Fountain of Trevi is decorated by four personified statues that represent, starting from left, "the Abundance of fruits", of Agostino Corsini, "the Fertility of the fields" of Bernardino Ludovisi, "the Gifts of Autumn" of Francesco Queirolo and "the Amenity of the grasslands" of Bartolomeo Pincellotti and at the top we find a large writing wanted by Pope Clemente XII, which stemma, at the top, is edged by two Fame of Paolo Benaglia.
In the biggest niche at the centre, edged by Corinthian columns, the big statue of the Ocean, projected by Giovan Battista Maini but sculptured by Pietro Bracci, leads a stagecoach having the form of a shell guided by a triton and dragged by two winged sea horses, one quick-tempered and the other placid while on the sides are located the personifications of the Healthiness and the Abundance by Filippo Della Valle.
Giuseppe Pannini, succeeding to Salvi to the direction of the works as the new architect of the Virgin Water, completed the project of Salvi with the creation of regular tanks with shiny sides in marble in the central part of the reef. The small piazza of Trevi, that welcomes the most famous fountain of Rome, is probably the most crowded place, full of visitors, which, as the tradition wants, throw a coin in the tank hoping that this gesture will guarantee them to come back to Rome again.

Michelangelo was commissioned for this work by Pope Pius IV. Tradition has it that 40,000 Christians were martyred during the building works for these baths, and the pope's idea was to consecrate the most monumental part of the ruins to them.
Michelangelo utilized the great central hall and some of the side rooms and succeeded in leaving intact the great sense of grandeur that the ancient building possessed without imposing his own architecture on the building.
However, Vanvitelli made a number of changes for the Holy Year of 1750. The church contains the altar frontals taken from St. Peter's Basilica when these were replaced with mosaics.
Because Piazza della Repubblica outside joins onto Via Nazionale, the church has become a natural place for celebrations of the Italian State. Three of the great leaders in victories from the First World War- Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Thaon di Revel and Armando Diaz- are buried inside the church.

Built between 298 and 306 AD, these were the greatest of the Imperial baths. The perimeter wall, enclosing a quadrangle of 14 hectares, was colonnaded along the inside and contained chambers and rooms for different uses. On the long axis of the building, Via Gaeta, marking the northern side, is where the public was admitted into the changing rooms, the gyms, and the massage rooms.
On the short axis, following the old floor plan of Trajan's Baths, stood the Basilica, the hot baths of the calidarium, the tepid baths of the tepidarium, and the swimming area. The great exedra of the baths, today's Piazza della Repubblica, was also part of the perimeter walls and was used for theatrical shows.
Over the centuries, many of the chambers of the baths were restored and used for museums, university faculties and churches.
Although the building has undergone a great number of changes, the floor plan of this enormous bath complex, purportedly built by 40,000 Christians, is still easily recognizable today.

Both the Piazza and the Basilica are named after the Holy Apostles. Although tradition says the basilica was built in the 3rd century, it actually only dates back to the 6th century.
It is said that marble was taken from Trajan's Forum for its construction and, though there is no way of checking this, it wouldn't surprise us!
The Colonna Pope, Martin V, restored this church to its original splendor when he had the work started on the construction of Palazzo Colonna.
The basilica thereby regained the importance it had enjoyed during the Middle Ages. Like all Roman churches, it is a kind of palimpsest that marks its own history over the centuries.
Pope Sixtus IV built the splendid portico outside the façade. With its nine arches, it remains one of the most extraordinary examples of 15th century architecture.
Sixtus also commissioned the great 15th century master painter, Melozzo da Forli, to decorate the apse. The fresco that he painted there was later detached and divided; today one part is in the Quirinal Palace and the other in the Vatican Pinacoteca.
Michelangelo was buried here after his death, but his body was later stolen and carried off to Florence by his nephew, where he was buried again in Santa Croce.

An exceptional trio of architects, Maderno, Borromini and Bernini, worked on this majestic building. In 1622, Francesco Barberini, nephew of the emerging Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, soon to become Pope Urban VIII, acquired a rustic villa in this area from the Sforza family and commissioned Maderno to reconstruct it.
Although the original plan was for a much smaller building, the villa became an urban residence fit for a papal family, a palace with large gardens and open perspectives, similar to the conception of the villa Farnesina.
When Maderno died in 1629, Borromini who had already worked on some parts of the project, hoped to be put in charge but he was supplanted by the much better-known Bernini. Borromini's disappointment provided the foundation for the continuing conflict between the two artists.
The building was acquired by the Italian State in 1949 and now houses the Gallery of Arte Antica. Some of the most important collections in Rome provided the 1500 paintings and 2000 other artistic works.
Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13 ( Piazza Barberini )
Phone +39 06 32810
Daily 9 - 19, monday closed