Palazzo Serristori

Location

The palace is located in Rome, in rione Borgo, between Via della Conciliazione and Borgo Santo Spirito, with the main front facing east along Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro. It lies east of Palazzo Cesi-Armellini and faces to the east Palazzo Della Rovere, two remarkable Renaissance buildings.

History

At the end of the 15th century on this area lay a small palace property of Cesare Borgia, one of the children of Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492–1503). Afterwards, the building was owned by Cardinal Bartolomeo Della Rovere, a staunch enemy of the Borgias. In 1565 it was pulled down, and a new palace was erected by Averardo Serristori, ambassador of Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo Medici to Pope Pius IV (r. 1559–65). The building became the seat of the embassy of Tuscany before this was moved to Palazzo Firenze in rione Campo Marzio, and remained property of the Serristori family until 1821.

In that year the Apostolic Camera bought it and transformed it in the barracks of the Papal Zouaves. In 1867, at the eve of the happenings leading to the Battle of Mentana, Giuseppe Monti and Gaetano Tognetti, two revolutionaries fighting for the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, placed a mine in a storeroom under the palace. This exploded on 22 October 1867 destroying a whole wing of the building and killing 23 Zouaves (nine of them Italians, members of the unit's musical ensemble, then soldiers under duty or punishment) and four civilians. The two revolutionaries were both captured, sentenced to death and executed one year later. …

Description

The building, according to a description from the time of Pope Clement VIII (r. 1592–1605), had a front with 9 windows, a yard, and was 50 Roman feet long and 85 Roman feet wide (ca. 15m × 25 m). The main front has square windows and at its center a portal framed by rustication. The motif of the Keys of Heaven is repeated all around the cornice. Above the portal is located a window framed by two lesenes surmounted by a triangular pediment. The window is surmounted by a shield bearing the coat of arms of Pope Pius XI (r. 1922–39). Originally above the portal there was a Latin inscription referring to Averardo Serristori, now moved on the side facing Via della Conciliazione. A new Latin inscription, which recites "AD CHRISTIANAM PUERORUM UTILITATE" ("For the Christian profit of the children"), coming from the destroyed school in Piazza Pia, near Castel Sant'Angelo, has been put in its place.

Internally, the palace still maintains the original, large square Renaissance yard with a loggia with arches bearing up on pillars, and an open gallery, also with arches. A fountain, originally placed at the yards center, has been remounted near the yard's west side. Over the nearby wall it has been placed a Latin inscription praising Pope Pius XI. The interior of the building still shows remains of frescoes with military and patriotic subjects painted after 1870. The palace includes also a chapel, devoted to the Virgin of Mercy. The chapel has a rectangular plan, ended up with a palladian window which introduces into a cantoria covered by a groin vault. The chapel is decorated with frescoes painted in 1934 by Fra Aureliano Scaffoletti. The 19th century altar comes from the destroyed school of Piazza Pia and is surmounted by a representation of the Virgin of Mercy flanked by two angels.