PALAZZO SFORZA CESARINI

The palace was built in1458 as the seat of the Apostolic Chancellery by Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia who, after becoming Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), donated it to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. On his death, it passed to the grandchildren of Julius II Della Rovere (1503-1513). The building was later called Cancelleria Vecchia, to distinguish it from the Cancelleria Nuova in Palazzo Riario, where the business had been transferred in 1517 by Pope Leo X Medici (1513-1521).  Until 1535 it belonged to Francesco II Sforza, then to the Apostolic Chamber; in 1536 Paul III Farnese (1534-1549) returned it to the Sforzas, who united the name of the family with that of the Cesaris when the latter died out through marriage in 1697. The Sforza Cesarini family had the building completely restored and modified by the architect Pietro Passalacqua around 1730. During the works carried out in 1888 for the opening of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, a part of the palace was demolished, and later rebuilt in neo-Renaissance style by the architect Pio Piacentini (1846-1928). The surviving 18th-century façade on Via dei Banchi Vecchi has an off-centre rusticated doorway on the ground floor, surmounted by a balcony with balustrades and a window with a triangular tympanum. On either side of the doorway are windows with a simple frame and grilles, and underlying basement windows. The first and second floors have nine architraved windows, while the third has windows with a simple frame. The inner courtyard consists of a three-tiered portico with seven arches supported by octagonal columns and ending in a lower storey with seven arched windows.