Palazzo Altemps

Time can be experienced in many different and subjective ways, often intertwined with emotional reactions. When doing something enjoyable, time is experienced as moving faster, while tedious chores and difficult situations seem to slow down the pace of time. 

Another question is how to make the effects of time visible in order to understand the role of time in our lives – through changes in architectural expressions, the passing of time is manifested.  

Time structures not only our days but also the spaces we live in. 

Different generations have different tastes and needs, and will alter the layout, size of rooms and number of doorways accordingly. 

Older buildings are memories of the past, a gateway to events otherwise lost to the continuous flow of time, always moving forwards while the people and moments of the past become lost in oblivion. 

At Palazzo Altemps, different eras exist in the same space. 

Layers of paint and types of decoration are gently uncovered, presented side by side to demonstrate how ideals have shifted throughout the centuries. 

The result is a subtle elegance – pleasing to the eye and fascinating for the mind.

Today, it is one of the sites of the National Roman Museum, specifically dedicated to the history of art collecting. 

A collection is also a form of memory, an archive of stories centred around a certain topic or theme. 

In this way, the content of the museum correlates and enhances the architectural expression of the building. 

Located in Campo Marzio, only a few steps from Piazza Navona, the palazzo was built by Girolamo Riario, lord of Imola and nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. 

In 1568, it was purchased by Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps, nephew of Pope Pius IV. 

The Altemps family would remain in the palazzo for several hundred years, until the mid-19th century, when the property was inherited by Giulio Hardouin (whose daughter Duchess Maria Hardouin di Gallese married the poet Gabriele d’Annunzio in 1883, in the palazzo’s Church of San Aniceto).

Towards the end of the 19th century, the building was sold to the Holy See, and almost a century later, it was acquired by the Italian government and opened as a museum in 1997. Today, it is home to absolute masterpieces of ancient sculptures and noble collections, including Dei Drago collection, as well as Jandolo, Veneziani and Brancaccio sculptures, among many others. 

On display is also the archaeological collection of Evan Gorga, an eccentric collector of the early 20th century.

The layout of the museum creates a harmonious composition through how the marble sculptures are placed in the palatial rooms, borrowing from and reintroducing solutions used in the design of antiquarian collections. 

Palazzo Altemps

Piazza di Sant'Apollinare, 46

Rome, Italy