Palazzo Cesi
Title
Palazzo Cesi
Description
Although nothing remains of the original Palazzo Cesi and its surrounding gardens next to St. Peter’s Square, standing in the place where it would have been still gives us insight into the site’s setting in relation to the Vatican and the other cityscape around the palace. The site lies behind the Southern colonnade of the current St. Peter’s basilica on the grounds of the current International College of Saint Monica, the Curia Generalizia and Seminary of the Augustinian Order.
The Palazzo was built in the early 1500s to reflect the new power of the Cesi family after the appointment of Cardinal Federico Cesi.The Palazzo was surrounded by an extensive garden built as a pleasure garden and a place for the family to show off their extensive collection of ancient sculptures and inscriptions. The gardens were a source of great pride for Cardinal Federico who put extensive effort into their creation and maintenance. Guidebooks and letters of the time frequently mentioned the gardens as being an impressive site that was worth visiting in Rome, saying that the garden had: “lush vegetation, fountains, precious antiquities, inventive display settings, and [a] convenient location, just steps away from St. Peter’s and the Apostolic Palace.” (Bentz, 141) The garden brought respectability to the Cardinal and his family and gave him a reputation as a responsible man of the community. Even when statues were removed from the garden they still were connected to the family and brought them fame.
Cardinal Federico put in place a fedecommeso, to ensure that the space of the garden would not be disassembled or changed after his death. The fedecommeso was a document that created a set of rules of how the property could be handled or inherited after Federico’s death.
Unfortunately for his vision of the space, the convenient and impressive place next to the Vatican ended up being the eventual downfall of the property. In the mid-1600s when the papacy decided to redesign the space of St. Peter’s square they paid the Cesi family for the land and used part of the space that the Palazzo occupied to build the curving colonnades. By 1665 the project was finished, but the new design of the palace, and the relegation behind the colonnade structure made the Palazzo inappropriate for the main household of the Cesi family. The year the project was finished was also the first year the land of the garden started to be rented out to others and used for mainly agricultural purposes.
The Palazzo was built in the early 1500s to reflect the new power of the Cesi family after the appointment of Cardinal Federico Cesi.The Palazzo was surrounded by an extensive garden built as a pleasure garden and a place for the family to show off their extensive collection of ancient sculptures and inscriptions. The gardens were a source of great pride for Cardinal Federico who put extensive effort into their creation and maintenance. Guidebooks and letters of the time frequently mentioned the gardens as being an impressive site that was worth visiting in Rome, saying that the garden had: “lush vegetation, fountains, precious antiquities, inventive display settings, and [a] convenient location, just steps away from St. Peter’s and the Apostolic Palace.” (Bentz, 141) The garden brought respectability to the Cardinal and his family and gave him a reputation as a responsible man of the community. Even when statues were removed from the garden they still were connected to the family and brought them fame.
Cardinal Federico put in place a fedecommeso, to ensure that the space of the garden would not be disassembled or changed after his death. The fedecommeso was a document that created a set of rules of how the property could be handled or inherited after Federico’s death.
Unfortunately for his vision of the space, the convenient and impressive place next to the Vatican ended up being the eventual downfall of the property. In the mid-1600s when the papacy decided to redesign the space of St. Peter’s square they paid the Cesi family for the land and used part of the space that the Palazzo occupied to build the curving colonnades. By 1665 the project was finished, but the new design of the palace, and the relegation behind the colonnade structure made the Palazzo inappropriate for the main household of the Cesi family. The year the project was finished was also the first year the land of the garden started to be rented out to others and used for mainly agricultural purposes.
Creator
Julia Miller (2018)
Source
Bentz, Katherine M. "The Afterlife of the Cesi Garden: Family Identity, Politics, and Memory in Early Modern Rome." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 72, no. 2 (2013): 134-65.
Identifier
plazzocesi_2017
Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Via Paolo VI, 25, 00193 Roma RM
Description
Although nothing remains of the original Palazzo Cesi and its surrounding gardens next to St. Peter’s Square, standing in the place where it would have been still gives us insight into the site’s setting in relation to the Vatican and the other cityscape around the palace. The site lies behind the Southern colonnade of the current St. Peter’s basilica on the grounds of the current International College of Saint Monica, the Curia Generalizia and Seminary of the Augustinian Order.The Palazzo was built in the early 1500s to reflect the new power of the Cesi family after the appointment of Cardinal Federico Cesi.The Palazzo was surrounded by an extensive garden built as a pleasure garden and a place for the family to show off their extensive collection of ancient sculptures and inscriptions. The gardens were a source of great pride for Cardinal Federico who put extensive effort into their creation and maintenance. Guidebooks and letters of the time frequently mentioned the gardens as being an impressive site that was worth visiting in Rome, saying that the garden had: “lush vegetation, fountains, precious antiquities, inventive display settings, and [a] convenient location, just steps away from St. Peter’s and the Apostolic Palace.” (Bentz, 141) The garden brought respectability to the Cardinal and his family and gave him a reputation as a responsible man of the community. Even when statues were removed from the garden they still were connected to the family and brought them fame.
Cardinal Federico put in place a fedecommeso, to ensure that the space of the garden would not be disassembled or changed after his death. The fedecommeso was a document that created a set of rules of how the property could be handled or inherited after Federico’s death.
Unfortunately for his vision of the space, the convenient and impressive place next to the Vatican ended up being the eventual downfall of the property. In the mid-1600s when the papacy decided to redesign the space of St. Peter’s square they paid the Cesi family for the land and used part of the space that the Palazzo occupied to build the curving colonnades. By 1665 the project was finished, but the new design of the palace, and the relegation behind the colonnade structure made the Palazzo inappropriate for the main household of the Cesi family. The year the project was finished was also the first year the land of the garden started to be rented out to others and used for mainly agricultural purposes.