FARNESE PALACE

Farnese Palace is one of the most beautiful and important buildings in Rome. Once known as one of the “four wonders of Rome”, it is an architectural jewel housing an extraordinary collection of works of art.
The Palace was commissioned in 1513 by Alexander Farnese (1468-1549), who was subsequently elected Pope under the name of Paul III. Completed in 1589, it was built under the direction of four great architects: Sangallo the Young, Michelangelo, Vignola and Giacomo Della Porta.
The Farnese Palace houses the French Embassy since 1874 and the Ecole française de Rome – a research institute and library – since 1875.

Mirabilia is exclusively entrusted with the organization of cultural guided visits to the Farnese Palace on behalf of the Embassy of France.

Among the masterpieces of Palazzo Farnese that you will be able to admire during the guided tour, the famous Carracci Gallery stands out. Carried out between 1597 and 1608 by the Carracci brothers, Annibal and Augustin, the 20-meter long gallery of arches decorated with frescoes displays mythological subjects from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Through optical games and perspectives, the frescoes combine painting, sculpture and architecture in a triumph of light, shapes and colours that have been enchanting and fascinating those who walked through the Gallery in the last four-hundred years.
The Gallery of the Farnese Palace, decorated mainly by Hannibal, is today still considered his masterpiece and represents the most perfect conclusion of a century and a half of pictorial innovations in Europe before the birth of the great artistic movements of the Seventeenth Century.

Other wonders included in the guided tour are the Salon of Hercules with the tapestries woven in the seventeenth century, the sarcophagi decorated with mythological scenes and topped with sculptures of Roman warships, the Murano Gallery and the stunning Camerino (Fitting Room) also frescoed by Annibale Carracci.

Guided tours are available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and can be booked through this website: www.visite-palazzofarnese.it

Farnese Palace
French Embassy in Italy
Piazza Farnese
00186 Rome – Italy