Discover Museo di Roma – Palazzo Braschi

The Museo di Roma is the city's own civic museum, covering Rome's history and art from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. It occupies Palazzo Braschi, a large Neoclassical palace standing between Piazza Navona, the Campo de' Fiori, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Piazza di Pasquino.

The museum was founded in the Fascist era by the art historian Antonio Muñoz, director of the city government's antiquities and fine arts department, to document the "old Rome" that was then rapidly disappearing. It was the first civic museum of the city, opening on 21 April 1930 in a converted pasta factory near the Circus Maximus. It closed when war began in 1939 and reopened only in 1952, here.

Bequests and purchases turned it from a record of the past into an art museum. Artists represented include Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Antonio Canova, Pompeo Batoni, Giuseppe Ceracchi, Ippolito Caffi, Felice Giani, Bartolomeo Pinelli, Francesco Mochi, Joshua Reynolds and Nicola Salvi, who designed the Trevi Fountain. Antonio Muñoz's own collection of some 5,000 drawings, engravings and old illustrated books came with him.

The 120 watercolours of Roma sparita — vanished Rome — by Ettore Roesler Franz were once here, and are now at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere.

The Museo di Roma is the city's own civic museum, covering Rome's history and art from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. It occupies Palazzo Braschi, a large Neoclassical palace standing between Piazza Navona, the Campo de' Fiori, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Piazza di Pasquino.

The museum was founded in the Fascist era by the art historian Antonio Muñoz, director of the city government's antiquities and fine arts department, to document the "old Rome" that was then rapidly disappearing. It was the first civic museum of the city, opening on 21 April 1930 in a converted pasta factory near the Circus Maximus. It closed when war began in 1939 and reopened only in 1952, here.

Bequests and purchases turned it from a record of the past into an art museum. Artists represented include Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Antonio Canova, Pompeo Batoni, Giuseppe Ceracchi, Ippolito Caffi, Felice Giani, Bartolomeo Pinelli, Francesco Mochi, Joshua Reynolds and Nicola Salvi, who designed the Trevi Fountain. Antonio Muñoz's own collection of some 5,000 drawings, engravings and old illustrated books came with him.

The 120 watercolours of Roma sparita — vanished Rome — by Ettore Roesler Franz were once here, and are now at the Museo di Roma in Trastevere.

The last palace built in Rome for a papal nephew, and a Neoclassical one — begun in 1790 to designs by Cosimo Morelli, on a site cleared by demolishing the sixteenth-century palace Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger had built for Francesco Orsini.

The staircase is the reason to come. The oval hall inside the main entrance on Via San Pantaleo leads to a monumental staircase carried on eighteen red granite columns — spoils from the gallery the emperor Caligula built on the bank of the Tiber. It is decorated with ancient sculpture and with fine stuccoes by Luigi Acquisti on the myth of Achilles. A nineteenth-century staircase standing on first-century imperial columns is Rome's habit of building out of itself, made literal.

Valadier is here too. The Neoclassical architect Giuseppe Valadier designed the chapel on the piano nobile, and the white marble façade of the church of San Pantaleo next door, which gives the piazza in front its name.

It faces four ways and announces itself on none of them. The palace sits between Piazza Navona, the Campo de' Fiori, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Piazza di Pasquino, and at its south-west corner stands the statue of Pasquino — Rome's talking statue, the one people have been pinning anonymous satires to since the sixteenth century.

It was paid for by a pope, for his nephew. The site was bought in 1790 by Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti — son of Count Girolamo Onesti and Giulia Braschi, sister of Pope Pius VI, who made him Duke of Nemi — with funds supplied by his uncle. He then demolished the sixteenth-century palace that Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger had built for Francesco Orsini, in order to raise his own from the ground up. The architect was Cosimo Morelli.

Then history interrupted it twice. Construction was suspended in February 1798 during the Napoleonic occupation of the city; the French held the building until 1802 and confiscated the collection of antiquities it had just acquired, though the Duke was reimbursed for them. In 1809, when Napoleon declared Rome an Imperial city, the Duke moved in and was declared mayor.

It was never finished. He died in 1816, the palace incomplete and the family money spent. That is why the last great papal-family palace in Rome is also the one that stops short.

What it became instead. In 1871 the heirs sold it to the Italian State, which installed the Ministry of the Interior. Under Fascism it was Mussolini's political headquarters. After the war it sheltered 300 refugee families, and the fires they lit for warmth seriously damaged many of the interior frescoes. It passed to the civic authorities in 1949, was extensively conserved in 1952, and the present museum was installed then.

What does it cost? The permanent collection is €13.00 full, €7.50 reduced. Reduced covers EU citizens aged 6 to 25 and over 65, serving teachers, journalists with professional documentation and Roma Pass 48/72h holders.

Is it really free for Rome residents? Yes — since February 2026, for residents of Rome and the Città Metropolitana, on showing an identity card at the ticket desk.

I have a MIC card. Do I pay? The operator's ticket page lists MIC card holders under both the free and the reduced categories. Ask at the desk; the page contradicts itself.

When is it open? Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00–19.00, with last admission one hour before closing. Closed Mondays, 1 May and 25 December; 10.00–14.00 on 24 and 31 December.

What about the Keith Haring exhibition? It opens on 6 October 2026. Exhibition only €17.00 / €15.00; museum plus exhibition €25.00 / €19.00, which is €5 less than buying both.

Is there an audio guide? Yes, €4.00, in Italian, French and English.

Why are there ancient columns in the staircase? They are spoils. The eighteen red granite columns came from the gallery the emperor Caligula built on the bank of the Tiber.

Was this really Mussolini's headquarters? Yes. Under Fascism the palace was his political headquarters, and it carried a giant sculpture of his face surrounded by the word SI.

Who built it? Cosimo Morelli, from 1790, for Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti, nephew of Pope Pius VI. It was left unfinished when the Duke died in 1816.

Is it accessible? Admission is free for visitors with disabilities and one companion, but the operator publishes no detail about lifts or routes. Call 060608.