Palazzo Spada
Palace
Palace with gallery
Palazzo Spada
Seat of the State Council and Gallery
The Palazzo Spada was built in the 16th Century by Giulio Mersi da Caravaggio. It changed hands in the 17th Century from Cardinal Girolamo Capo di Ferro to Cardinal Spada, who commissioned Borromini to restore the palace. Borromini managed to give the perception of depth in the courtyards by two rows of columns with a coffered barrel vault. The stuccoes on the façade are by Giulio Mazzoni. On the façade, there are also the statues of eight famous Romans: Trajan, Pompey, Fabius Maximus, Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Marcellus, Caesar and Augustus (from left). The Pompey statue in one of the interior rooms is supposed to be that statue, in front of which Caesar was murdered by the senators in 44 B.C. Today the Palazzo Spada is the seat of the Italian Council of State and houses the Gallery Spada.
The Galleria Spada
The Galleria Spada mostly houses the private art collection of Cardinal Bernardino Spada. Highlights are an oil sketch for the ceiling painting of the church Il Gesu of Baciccia, the "Musician" by Titian, "The Visitation" by Andrea del Sarto and a "Landscape with windmill" by Jan Breughel the Elder.
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