The Galleria Colonna in Rome can only be visited on Saturday mornings and is more or less the private collection of the aristicratic Colonna family. The museum has its seat in the Palazzo Colonna. Six rooms in this building are open to the public.
Galleria Colonna Rome
Address, opening hours and admission
The address is Palazzo Colonna – Via della Pilotta 17, Rome (Tel: +39 066784350). Bus: 40, 60, 64, 70, 117, 170, H, N7, N8, N9, N15, N18. Opening Hours: The Galleria Colonna is open every Saturday morning (except in August) from 9am to 1.15pm. Admission: 12 Euro. 60+, children from 13 to 17, university students and disabled people pay 10 Euro. Groups of at least 4 people also pay only 10 Euro per person. Free for children under 13. Official website: https://www.galleriacolonna.it.
History
The Galleria Colonna has its seat in a beautiful palazzo with a spectacular 17th century Sala Grande. This vast room was used as background in the famous film “Roman Holiday” with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.
Today, unfortunately only on Saturday mornings, there is an exceptionally prestigious art collection on display. Most works in this collection are by famous 17th century European painters, including Brueghel and Dughet.
Description
The beautifully decorated rooms of the palazzo itself compete with the art on display. The frescoes by Bernardino di Betto, or Pinturicchio, which brighten up the ceiling of the “Room of the Fountain”, are among the highlights.
Only six rooms are open to the public. The ceiling paintings in the Great Hall are dedicated to Marcantonio Colonna, the most famous member of the family, who defeated Turks in 1571 during the naval battle at Lepanto.
The Great Hall is further graced by paintings by Giovanni Coli and Filippo Gherardi. Sebastiano Ricci decorated the “Hall of the Landscapes” and Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari painted the “Throne Room”.
The most famous painting in the collection is the painted “Bean Eater” (Mangiafagioli) by Annibale Carracci, painted around 1584. Other interesting works are painted by Italian masters such as Salvatore Rosa, Guido Reni and Guercino.
The Hall of Desks gets its name from two beautiful writing desks. The first one is decorated with pietra dura and some small bronze statues. The other one is covered with carved ivory.
Bronzino painted the “Venus and Cupid”.
A follower of Hieronymus Bosch was responsible for “The Temptation of Saint Anthony”.
The Chapel Hall and the collection of 17th century tapestries were only recently put on display.
The colorful marble floor was taken from the no longer existing Temple of Serapis.
The large cannonball in the marble staircase is a souvenir of the siege of Rome in 1849.
The building, construction of which was completed in 1703, is still property of the Colonna family.