Description
Palazzo Farnese is the great Renaissance palace that dominates Piazza Farnese, in the center of Rome: because of its squared-off bulk, Romans called it “the Farnese die”. Today it's the seat of the French Embassy.
The brick facade, 56 meters wide, with three floors of 13 windows, is by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; the cornice and the balcony with the coat of arms are attributed to Michelangelo.
Inside, the vault of the Carracci Gallery is covered with mythological stories, frescoed by Annibale Carracci between 1597 and 1607. The square's two fountains reuse granite basins from the Baths of Caracalla.
It was built for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, later Pope Paul III. In the 18th century it passed to the Bourbons of Naples, who took away the statues of the collection, among them the Farnese Hercules. Puccini set the second act of Tosca here.
The brick facade, 56 meters wide, with three floors of 13 windows, is by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; the cornice and the balcony with the coat of arms are attributed to Michelangelo.
Inside, the vault of the Carracci Gallery is covered with mythological stories, frescoed by Annibale Carracci between 1597 and 1607. The square's two fountains reuse granite basins from the Baths of Caracalla.
It was built for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, later Pope Paul III. In the 18th century it passed to the Bourbons of Naples, who took away the statues of the collection, among them the Farnese Hercules. Puccini set the second act of Tosca here.