Address, opening hours and admission

Address: Piazza di San Pantaleo, 10 – Rome (tel. +39 060608, which is the information number for the city of Rome). Opening hours museum: 10.00 till 19.00; December 24 and 31: 10.00 till 16.00. Closed: Mondays, January 1, May 1, December 25. Admission: 9,50 Euros (concessions: 7,50 Euros); free for children younger than 6 and for Rome residents between 6 and 18. Free for Rome residents on the first Sunday of the month. Roma Pass is valid.

History and description

The palazzo was designed by the architect Cosimo Morelli, who had been commissioned to do so by Luigi Braschi Onesti. Luigi had managed to use the influence of his uncle, Pope Pius VI, in order to acquire the wealth and privileges needed to be able to have the building constructed.

Before the Palazzo Braschi was constructed a 15th building belonging to the Orsini family stood in the same site. A number of cardinals lived there, before the building was bought by the Orsini‘s again (end of the 17th century). They adorned the palazzo with a number of art works and then sold it to Prince Caracciolo di Santobono who, in turn, sold it to the Braschi Onesti family.

A year after they bought it, in 1791, the Braschi had the building destroyed and gave Morelli the task of rebuilding it. Work was interrupted for 4 years because of the French occupation (1798-1802).

The monumental stairs and Valadier‘s chapel on the first floor were finished in 1804.

When the Braschi Onesti‘s got financial difficulties they sold the palazzo to the Italian State. For a while it was the seat of the Ministry of the Interior. Under Mussolini fascist institutions took residence in the Palazzo Braschi and from the end of the war until 1949 three hundred homeless families were put up in the building. Unfortunately theft and lighting of fires caused damage to the frescoes and floors of the building.

Palazzo Braschi – Piazza di San Pantaleo 10, Rome