Palazzo Rondinini

The building has eighteenth-century shapes enlivened by the double portal with columned balcony and the tympanums of the windows on the main floor.

It was built by the Marquis Giuseppe Rondinini, an art collector of Faenza origins, based on a design by the architects Gabriele Valvassori, architect of the Doria Pamphilj family, who built much of the external structure, and Alessandro Dori who was responsible for the façade on Via del Corso, the courtyard and internal environments, to worthily host his vast collection.

The entrance is marked by a double portal with columned balcony. The palace arose from the expansion of the pre-existing building that had already belonged to the Cavalier d'Arpino. The works lasted four years and were completed in 1764 with the transfer of the Marquis's collection to the building. This collection included paintings, sculptures, Roman inscriptions, columns and ancient marbles including a beautiful head of Medusa: the Medusa Rondanini, now preserved in the Glyptothek of Munich. Among the various works located in the palace there was also Michelangelo's Pietà, which was purchased in 1744 and is now preserved in the Sforzesco Castle in Milan. The main floor houses richly frescoed rooms, a ballroom and a gallery. Goethe, during his stay in Rome, visited the palace and his collection. Count Sanseverino Vimercati, who purchased the palace in 1904, had various rooms in the west wing redecorated in neo-rococo style.

From 1990 until 2023, the Chess Club was located on the main floor.