Palazzo Pamphilj

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Palazzo Pamphilj also spelled Palazzo Pamphili is a palace facing Piazza Navona in Rome, and was built between 1644 and 1650.

The original palace was built in 1630 over a series of houses already property of the powerful Pamphilj family, and had late Renaissance forms. But when the commissioner, Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, became pope in 1644 as Innocent X, the family decided the palace was not enough for their increased prestige and started a new and more magnificent building. The architect commissioned was Girolamo Rainaldi. The new project inglobated some of the neighbouring buildings, including the former palace of the Pamphilj (whose decoration by Agostino Tassi was partially preserved) and the Palazzo Cybo.

The interior has three courtyards. The halls are highly and splendidly decorated: the noble plan has 23 rooms frescoes by famous artists including Giacinto Gemignani, Gaspard Dughet, Andrea Camassei, Giacinto Brandi, Francesco Allegrini, Pier Francesco Mola. Pietro da Cortona in 1651-1654 painted the long gallery, designed by Borromini, with the Enea's Histories.

The new palazzo was later the home of Innocent's widowed sister-in-law Olimpia Maidalchini, who was his unpopular confidante and advisor, and speculated to have been his mistress. Olimpia Maidalchini was the mother of Camillo Pamphilj, the one time cardinal, who through his marriage came into the possession of the Palazzo Aldobrandini, now known as the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj which today has the postal address of "Piazza del Collegio Romano 2", in the famous Via del Corso.

When the Pamphilj settled in their new palace, the building in Piazza Navona was let, housing, among the others, to the Accademia Filarmonica Romana.

Confusingly, until the unification of the Doria and Pamphilj surnames both palazzi were known as Palazzo Pamphilj, or in the case of today's Doria Pamphilj sometimes "Palazzo Pamfilio". Both spellings Pamphilj and Pamphili are in common Italian usage, even though the family prefers Pamphilj.

To add to the confusion, there is a second Palazzo Doria-Pamphilj, a summer urban villa, in Valmontone near Rome; this palace, while badly damaged during the second war, is renowned for its late Baroque fresco series by Francesco Cozza, Pier Francesco Mola, and Mattia Preti[1].

Since 1920 Palazzo Pamphilj has housed the Brazilian Embassy in Italy, becoming Brazilian property in 1961.