Palazzo Braschi

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Palazzo Braschi is a large Neoclassical palace in Rome, Italy, built by the papal nephew duca Luigi Braschi Onesti,^[1] to designs by Cosimo Morelli. The architect Giuseppe Valadier designed the chapel on the piano nobile. Palazzo Braschi is located between Piazza Navona, Campo de' Fiori (and Corso Vittorio Emanuele II), and the Piazza di Pasquino. It presently houses the civic museum of Rome (Museo di Roma). The site was purchased by Braschi in 1790, who demolished the 16th-century palazzo that Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger built for Francesco Orsini in order to erect his own from the ground up.^[2] Construction was suspended in February 1798 during the Napoleonic occupation of the city, when the French temporarily took possession of it until 1802 and confiscated the recently-acquired collection of antiquities it contained (though Braschi was reimbursed for them). In 1809, when Rome was declared an Imperial city by Napoleon, duca Luigi moved into the Palazzo and was declared mayor. In 1816, at his death, the palazzo remained unfinished and the family funds depleted. In 1871 the Braschi Onesti heirs sold the palazzo to the Italian State, which put it to various official uses before the present installation of the museum was effected in 1952.

The main entrance is on Via San Pantaleo (between Piazza Navona and Corso Vittorio Emanuele). The oval hall at the main entrance overlooks via San Pantaleo, and leads to the monumental staircase with its eighteen red granite columns coming from the gallery built by emperor Caligula on the banks of the Tiber. Along the staircase there are ancient sculptures and fine stuccoes by Luigi Acquisti, inspired by Achilles’ myth.