Pamphilj Palace (Albano)

About

Palazzo Pamphilj (or del Collegio Nazareno) is a historical palace in the city of Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome, in the Roman Castles area. The palace was built between 1708 and 1717 by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj to replace some country houses dating back to the second half of the 17th century located at the top of the trident of Albano, a new urban expansion of the city conceived in the mid-17th century by Cardinal Fabrizio Savelli, commendatory abbot of the church of San Paolo. The palace became the property of the Piarist fathers of Rome's Nazarene College in 1764. It was used as a summer residence for the college's students until 1944, when it was requisitioned for use as a shelter for 52 war-displaced families. It is currently a private property and is in total disrepair and neglect, despite being cited as an illustrative example of a patrician building in the Alban Hills and an 18th-century reconstruction site in a detailed study by Marco Silvestri and Enzo D'Ambrosio for the Accademia degli Incolti in 1988.

The "trident" and early 17th century urbanization

The realization of the trident of Albano as a set of three straight roads converging at a single point was promoted by Cardinal Paolo Savelli, commendatory abbot of St. Paul's Abbey, taking advantage of the lands owned by the abbey. As early as 1282, Cardinal Giacomo Savelli, since 1285 Pope Honorius IV, had built the abbey complex of St. Paul's, endowing it with substantial properties in the Albanese territory and around Lake Albano (such as the picturesque hermitage of Sant'Angelo in Lacu). The trident of roads was articulated as an urbanistic expansion of the city, hitherto restricted horizontally along the route of the decayed Via Appia Antica, which grafted onto today's Corso Alcide de Gasperi and developed with three roads that connected the strategic points of the city to the Abbey of St. Paul: the current Via Leonardo Murialdo (the "third street" of the Gregorian cadastre ) with the cathedral basilica of San Pancrazio, the current Via San Gaspare del Bufalo (the "second street" of the Gregorian cadastre) with the shrine of Santa Maria della Rotonda, and the current Via Aurelio Saffi (the "first street" of the Gregorian cadastre) with the Via Appia and, slightly wrong-footing it, with Palazzo Savelli. The first building erected in the new expansion (the "Borgo Nuovo," today's Borgo San Paolo) was a country house built by Cardinal Vincenzo Maculani, a Dominican military engineer in papal service, between 1657 and 1662. The annual rent he had to pay to the Abbey of San Paolo, owner of the land, amounted to two pounds of wax (about 600 grams). Next to this palace, built at the corner of the square and today's Via Murialdo and Via San Gaspare del Bufalo, on the downstream side rose the country house of the Bottini marquises.

Later, the "trident" was occupied by new aristocratic palaces: Rospigliosi palace, built in 1667 opposite the Maculani casino (today it houses the "Leonardo Murialdo" paritarian institute and the Giuseppini fathers' college) and the Nuñex casino on Piazza San Paolo, the palace of Cardinal Bernardino Giraud (1721-1782) and the neoclassical Croci palace on today's Via Aurelio Saffi.

On Dec. 6, 1707, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj, a patron, librettist and librarian of the Vatican Library, sent the architect Filippo Leti to Albano to make an estimate of the value of the Maculani casino and also of the adjacent Bottini casino, as he was intent on purchasing them to build a new palace.

The Maculani casino, a two-story building with a courtyard, chapel, stable and dining room, was in a very bad state, unfinished and far too rustic, with the putlog holes still visible.

The adjacent Bottini casino, on the other hand, though much smaller, was more finished, and still counted two floors with courtyard, dinette, stable and chapel.

The final estimation was 3000 pontifical scudi for the Maculani casino and 1500 for the Bottini casino: the purchase of the two properties was sealed in Rome, at the Doria Pamphilj palace, on January 30 and 31, 1708. Later, Cardinal Pamphilj also purchased an undivided property of the extent of 113 square meters, belonging to Maddalena Ubaldi, located along today's Via Murialdo, bordering his new properties: the purchase was concluded on March 26, 1708.

The construction of the palace was begun by the architect Simone Costanzi, who, however, died in the course of the work in 1709, so the construction was followed by Filippo Leti under the supervision of master builder De Rossi.

Another participation in the design and embellishment of the palace was that of the architect and painter Domenico Paradisi, who between 1709 and 1712 worked on the decoration of the palace's representative interiors: in addition to him, the pictorial decoration was carried out by the painter Macci, director of the works, and the painter Severino Lucentin, who was responsible for the decoration of the flight of rooms on the main floor.

If in 1712 the front of the palace on Piazza San Paolo was probably completed, between July and September 1717 the factory was expanded with Cardinal Pamphilj's purchase of the house of brothers Domenico and Matteo Giannini, adjacent to his property and facing the present Via San Gaspare del Bufalo: in this space the courtyard "of the cavallerizza " was built.

The material for the building was easy to obtain: the wood came directly from the Albano woods on the slopes of Lake Albano, the lime from the family estate of Valmontone, and the bricks from Rome, through the Oratorian Fathers of the Chiesa Nuova.

On June 1, 1710, the palace was visited by Pope Clement XI, a friend of Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj : as the building was completed, it was used as a venue for parties and cultural salons by the literate cardinal.

Cardinal Pamphilj died in Rome on March 22, 1730, leaving the palace to his nephew Camillo Filippo Pamphilj, who in turn died in 1747, leaving all his property to Girolamo Pamphilj, who died in 1760: therefore the palace would fall to his nephew, Cardinal Girolamo Colonna di Sciarra. When the latter also died, in 1763, ownership of the palace passed to Cardinal Marcantonio Colonna and Prince Lorenzo Onofrio II Colonna with his nephews: however, the Genoese prince Andrea Doria Landi, recognized by Pope Clement XIII as the legitimate heir of the Pamphilj (thus began the Doria Landi Pamphili ), made claims on the palace. Eventually Prince Doria Landi Pamphilj came to an agreement with the Colonna heirs, leaving to them the ownership of the Albanian palace, which was ultimately sold in 1764 to the Piarist fathers of the Nazarene College in Rome for 7000 pontifical scudi.

From the late 18th century to World War II: The Piarists

Since 1758, the students of the Collegio Nazareno, the historic Roman college founded in 1630 and run by the Piarist Fathers, who could not return home during their vacations, stayed at the palace in Albano. The rector of the college, Father Bandini, thought it best to purchase the palace and the adjacent Nuñez casino instead of paying the Colonna family the rent of 200 pontifical scudi. The estimated sum for the purchase amounted to 7,000 scudi (including furnishings), in view of the building's poor condition: payment was made in installments of 1,000 scudi spread over five years during which the Colonna family retained the right of ownership, after an initial down payment of 2,000 scudi.

In 1777 the Piarists called the architect Giuseppe Tarquini to carry out an elevation of the building to obtain more dormitories and toilets, which were otherwise insufficient for the needs of the pupils: however, in 1781 Tarquini himself in an estimate of the palace valued it at 12,000 scudi (including the furniture), even though the masonry and foundations turned out to be very thin.

The solutions proposed by Tarquini in solving the disturbing thinness of the masonry (about 60 centimeters by more than 16 meters high) were excellent and valid for the next three hundred years.

New changes were made between 1796 and 1806 by architect Girolamo Masi, with the construction of new toilets in the palace courtyard, the closing of the gateway on Via San Gaspare del Bufalo, and the rebuilding of the dilapidated attics.

After the proclamation of the Roman Republic (1798-1799) in Rome on February 15, 1798, Albano constituted itself a " sister republic " on February 18, establishing a municipal republican government. However, the Albano population was not slow to rebel against the new regime, and on February 25 they took part in the revolt against the French that broke out in Trastevere : however, the French army commanded by Joachim Murat did not delay in suppressing all reactionary turmoil by occupying and sacking Albano on February 29, 1798. In the French sacking, Pamphilj Palace, occupied by the soldiers, was also damaged, so in 1799 the Piarists had to make the necessary repairs.