The Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini is a historic building in the Ponte district of Rome. It has been owned by a number of papal families. It is also called Palazzo della Cancelleria Vecchia.
Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini Rome
Address, opening times and tickets
The Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini has two entrances. The official address is on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 284, while there is a second entrance on Via dei Banchi Vecchi, 118. Phone: +39 06 6879939. The palace is privately owned and cannot be visited.
History and description
The Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini was built in 1458. It was constructed by order of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia and it was intended to be the seat of the Cancelleria Apostolica. When Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, he gave the palace as a present to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza.
After the cardinal’s death, the building came into the possession of the grandchildren of Julius II Della Rovere. From then on it was called Cancelleria Vecchia, since Pope Leo X Medici had meanwhile opened a Cancelleria Nuova in the Palazzo Riario (1517).
In 1535, through Francesco II Sforza, it came into the hands of the Camera Apostolica, only to returned to the Sforza one year later by Pope Paul III Farnese.
Through marriage, the Sforza united in 1697 with the Cesarini, who had remained without male heirs.
The Sforza-Cesarini family had the building restored in 1730 by the architect Pietro Passalacqua.
In 1888 Corso Vittorio Emanuele II was constructed and part of the palace had to be demolished for this purpose. Later it was rebuilt in a neo-classical style by the architect Pio Piacentini.
The facade on Via dei Banchi Vecchi dates back to the 18th century. Above the portal there is a balcony and a window with a tympanum. The portal is not in the center of the palace.
The courtyard has a three-story portico with seven arches supported by octagonal columns. The top floor has seven arched windows.
