Unknown Museums Series: Palazzo Colonna

I wanted to go to this museum for a really long time and never made it, because it is only open on saturday mornings, because, believe it or not, the nobel Colonna family still lives there.


The Colonna family is one of those important Roman nobel families that trace their family name back to the 10th century. Like the Barberini, Rovere, Pamphilii and the Orsini (who were their arch enemy) they are all engaged in the power play on who is the most influencial family in old Rome. One important aspect in this power struggle is showing the world how wealthy and educated you are by having an enormous palace full of super sophisticated pieces of art to show off.


Among their famous ancestors the Colonnas have important men like the general (Marcantonio Colonna) that defeated the Turks at Lepanto, a pope and many cardinals and political leaders.


But this family also includes some pretty amazing women. Maria Mancini Colonna, who ran away from her husband and became, among others, the mistress of the Kind of England. And Vittoria Colonna who wrote poetry and was a friend of Michelangelo.


Come, let's go inside...







The museum is a bit more expensive than others, but I do recommend to take the full package with a guided visit of the apartments of the Principessa Isabella, the Galleria and the garden. The tour guides are all very good.


I started with the apartments and was instantly stunned by the magnificent frescos in the entrance:










And here I also learnd about the amazing Maria Mancini Colonna. She was way ahead of her time. Maria was the niece of the cardinal Jules Mazarin, who was a very powerful figure at the court of Louis XIV. Her uncle brought Maria to the French court. There everybody was enchanted by this beautiful young Italian and Maria even had an impossible love affaire with the sun king. Because he had to marry Maria Theresia of Spain for politicial reasons, Maria was dragged off to Rome to marry Lorenzo Colonna. At that time women's lifes in Rome were a lot more resticted than in Paris. Maria hated it and tried hard to maintain her more open and flamboyant life style. She created a scandel by roaming the streets of Rome without male protection in her lavish carriages. She celebrated carneval parties and theater productions in the Colonnna palace. Besides adding to Rome's glamour at the time, she had three sons with Lorenzo.
Unfortunately, the marriage became unhappy after a while, Lorenzo had mistresses, Maria was furious. She feared that her husband would try to poison her and so she ran away with her sister Hortensia, disguised in men's cloths. From now on she was fair game. As a prominent women at that time (She lived 1639-1715.) a married nobel woman depended on the protection of powerful men. Her old love Louis XIV. gave her money, but would not see and protect her form her husband, who wanted to drag her bad to Rome, put her in monastary or kill her.She can be considered as the first European celebrity, because her adventures were covered with attention by the press.

When I saw her portrait I had instant goose bumbs and bought the book about her and her sisters lives. A fascinating read.


https://www.amazon.de/Kings-Mistresses-Liberated-Princess-Hortense/dp/1586488899











In the apartment you can admire wonderful art, beautiful frescos, furniture. The whole atmosphere is like you were travelling in time and you might as well imagine that you are a princess.


This painting shows the church of St. Giovanni before it was suffocated by the relentless Roman traffic.





This is a beautiful picture by Brueghel, if I remember well...





I do not remember the name of the artist, but this picture shows the flight from Troja, only that Troja is Rome as you can see from the Castel St. Angelo in the background.










The coat of arms of the Colonna on a marbel floor.










This is a very special clock, custom-made for the Colonna. It shows Maria Colonna with her sister and servants on their escape. You could read the time on it at night because the mumbers could be illuminated by a candel that was put behind the clock face.




This self-portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola impressed me. She was one of the few female painters in the renaissance that had a successful career. Her father supported and managed her. She was very popular as a portraitist and worked as an art teacher to the queen of Spain.



















Fun fact: This is the washing room. Yes, why not have a really stylish place to wash your laundry if you can afford to decorate it with Roman antiques. Yes, in this "Sala del Mascherone" the basin, the columns and the floor tiles are all Roman antique originals.



















I loved the apartement of the Principessa Isabella, but the ball room is, of course, the kicker of this palace. I almost cried the first time I walked through it. The beauty is just overwhelming. It is huge: 40 meters long, 17 meters high. Everything is decorated with exqusite art, mirrors, gold, frescos, Roman sculptures. Wow!! These Colonna know something about demonstrating their wealth. It is baroque interior at its best.








During the revolutionary upheavals for the Repubblica Romana in 1848 this canon ball had ended up in the Galleria and damaged one of the stairs. In the good old Roman tradition of integrating history from all ages into your interior, the family simple let it sit there.












Even the mirrors are not just simple mirrors. And already simple mirrors where crazy expensive at that time. No, these mirrors are decorated with flower girlands done my Mario de Fiori. Well, his real name was Nuzzi, but as you can see he had such a success and reputation for the painting of flowers that he earned this name.







The final highlight of the Colonna Palace is the garden...It is huge, it has a cascade, a breathtaking view and some pieces of an ancient Egyptian temple. I mean, seriously, how more extravagant can you get? Eat your heart out, Donald Trump!














In the first century after Christ Rome was a hotbed of divers religious cults. That is why the Colonnas can bost with some fragments of a temple for the Egyptian god Serapis in their garden.







If you are in the garden in the summer you must be very thirsty by now. There is a nice cool bar in the court yard of the palace where you can digest this orgy of eye candy and time travel.