The Museo Napoleonico is located on the ground floor of the historical building Palazzo Primoli in the Ponte district in Rome. The nucleus of the museum is the collection count Primoli donated to the city in 1927.

What to know before your visit to the Museo Napoleonico

Address: Piazza di Ponte Umberto I, 1 – 00186 Rome, Italy. (District: Ponte). Tel: +39 066874240. Public transport: Bus: 30, 70, 81, 87, 492, 628. Opening hours: Tuesday-Sunday: 10.00 until 18.00 (24 and 31 December 10.00 until 14.00). Closed: Mondays, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December. Admission: Free. The ticket office closes 3o minutes before closing time.

A brief history of the Napoleon Museum in Rome

In 1927, Count Giuseppe Primoli, who was the son of Princess Carlotta Bonaparte, donated his collection of works of art, including his Napoleonic relics and mementos, to the city of Rome.

These objects now form the core collection of the Napoleonic Museum and can still be viewed on the ground floor of the Palazzo Primoli, which also houses the Museo Mario Praz (on the third floor).

The Napoleonic Museum has recently been restored, but inside it still looks more or less the way it did when Primoli left it, with many of its 18th and 19th century decorations intact.

The collections of the museum can be divided into three separate parts:

  1. The period that can be called truly Napoleonic and shows paintings by the major artists of the time.
  2. The so-called Roman period, from the fall of Napoleon to the rise of Napoleon III.
  3. The time of the second empire, dominated by the figure of Napoleon III.

Palazzo Bonaparte

Tourists interest in Napoleon should also visit the Palazzo Bonaparte on the corner of the Via del Corso and the Piazza Venezia. Napoleon‘s mother lived a good part of her life in this historical building.

Piazza di Ponte Umberto I, 1 – Rome