The Palazzo Cancelleria -

The Papal Chancellery

 

In the north corner of the Campo, today just outside the area we now see as the square, is the Palazzo della Cancelleria, built between 1489 and 1513. It is regarded as the first Renaissance palace built in Rome.

 

Designed by Donato Bramante (1444-1544) as a palace for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who was a cardinal to his uncle, Pope Pius IV.  The rumor was that the funds came in a single night's winnings at gaming. The palazzo is now an extraterritorial property of the Holy See and is designated as a World Heritage Site.

 

In 1517, the newly completed palazzo was seized by the first Medici Pope, Leo X, who had not forgotten the complacency of Pope Sixtus at the time of the murderous Pazzi conspiracy intended to replace the Medici in Florence with a Della Rovere regime.

 

From 1753 the vice-chancellor was the Jacobite pretender to the throne of Great Britain, Henry Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York, the Jacobite "Henry IX of Great Britain". During the late 17th.C. former queen Kristina of Sweden lived here.

 

During the Roman Republic of 1849, the parliament briefly sat here. Inside the courtyard you can see columns scavenged from the ancient Roman Theatre of Pompey.

 

The forty-four Egyptian granite columns of the inner courtyard are from the porticoes of the theatre's upper covered seating, however they were originally taken from the theatre to build the old Basilica of St. Lorenzo. This was not unusual as in the 15th.C. as Rome was a field of ruined and crumbling buildings. The population of 30,000 lived in a city that at its height had housed over a million people.

 

In the palazzo is a vast mural that Giorgio Vasari completed in a mere 100 days (therefore called Sala dei Cento Giorni ). He boasted of this accomplishment to Michelangelo, who responded "Si vede" ("It shows").

 

In the palazzo a little private theatre was installed by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and in the later 17th century the Cancelleria became a center of the musical life of Rome.

 

Today the Chancellery houses an exhibition of machines built from Leonardo Da Vinci's plans and drawings.