Discover Palazzo Colonna

Palazzo Colonna is a private palace near Piazza Santi Apostoli that opens to the public on Friday and Saturday mornings only. The reference work records that the first part of it dates from the 13th century and that it has belonged to the Colonna family for over twenty generations.

The Great Hall is the reason to come. The gallery's own account has it commissioned in the mid-1600s by Cardinal Girolamo I Colonna and his nephew Lorenzo Onofrio, originally designed by Antonio del Grande and later integrated by Bernini, Schor and Fontana, and inaugurated by Philip II in 1700; the reference work gives the main gallery as completed in 1703. Its vault carries a cycle of frescoes of the Battle of Lepanto.

On the short flight of stairs up to the hall sits a cannon ball that landed there in 1849, fired by French forces under General Oudinot during the Roman Republic. The collection includes Bronzino's Venus, Cupid and a Satyr and Annibale Carracci's Il Mangiafagioli (The Bean Eater), with Guercino, Salvator Rosa, Tintoretto, Salviati, Guido Reni and Lanfranco; the older wing, now the Princess Isabelle apartments, holds frescoes by Renaissance and Baroque masters. The ending scene of Roman Holiday, 1953, was shot in the gallery.

Saturday 09.15-13.15 (last entry), self-guided, EUR 15 or EUR 25. Friday by reservation only, guided, EUR 35.

A gallery driven through a house that was already four centuries old. The palace grew by accumulation — the first part dates from the 13th century — and the Great Hall is what happens when a family that has held one address for over twenty generations finally builds at the scale it can afford.

The design is layered rather than single. Antonio del Grande drew it; the gallery's own account has it later integrated by Bernini, Schor and Fontana, and the reference work credits Girolamo Fontana with the decoration. Four hands on one room, in the generation when those were the best hands in Rome.

The vault is the architecture. The whole barrel is frescoed with the Battle of Lepanto — a cycle, not a single scene — so the ceiling carries a narrative the length of the hall. The walls below are organised to serve it: paired columns of coloured marble, mirrors, and paintings hung frame to frame rather than spaced, which is a seventeenth-century hanging and not a modern museum's.

The older wing says what the palace was before. Now the Princess Isabelle apartments, it is lower and more domestic, frescoed by Renaissance and Baroque masters — the house the Colonna lived in, against the room they received in.

Built by a family rather than by a project, over eight centuries. The 13th-century core is still in the fabric; everything after it was added by people who already owned the previous part, which is why the palace reads as a sequence rather than a plan.

The Great Hall was the one deliberate campaign. Cardinal Girolamo I Colonna and his nephew Lorenzo Onofrio commissioned it in the mid-1600s. Antonio del Grande produced the design, and it was later integrated by Bernini, Schor and Fontana — the room took long enough that the leading architects of two decades each had a turn at it.

When it was finished is genuinely disputed. The gallery says it was inaugurated by Philip II in 1700. The reference work gives the main gallery as completed in 1703. This page reports both and resolves neither, and does not guess at who the source means by Philip II.

The last structural event was an accident and was left alone. In 1849, French artillery under General Oudinot put a cannon ball onto the short flight of stairs below the Great Hall during the fighting of the Roman Republic. It was never removed. A family that had been there six hundred years evidently decided it was now part of the house.

When is it open? Friday and Saturday mornings only, including public holidays. Closed Sunday to Thursday.

What is the difference between the two days? Saturday is self-guided, 09.15 to 13.15 last entry, walk up. Friday is guided tours by reservation only at fixed times. There is no Friday walk-up ticket.

How much? Saturday EUR 15 (Galleria, Pio apartments, gardens) or EUR 25 complete, FAI members EUR 20. Friday guided complete EUR 35, FAI EUR 30. Audioguides EUR 5 on Saturday.

Which ticket has the Great Hall? Both. The EUR 15 Short Tour includes the Galleria; the extra ten euros buys the Princess Isabelle apartment.

Is there really a cannonball on the stairs? Yes — on the short flight up to the Great Hall, where it landed in 1849, fired by French forces under General Oudinot during the Roman Republic.

Was Roman Holiday filmed here? The reference work records that the ending scene of the 1953 film, with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, was shot in the gallery.

When was the Great Hall finished? The gallery says it was inaugurated by Philip II in 1700; the reference work gives the main gallery as completed in 1703. The page gives both.

How long does it take? About 90 minutes for the complete route.