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Museo di Roma – Palazzo Braschi

Museo di Roma – Palazzo Braschi Historical Timeline

Last updated on September 29, 2026

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A palace built for a pope's nephew, taken by the French, used by Mussolini, and filled with refugees who burned its frescoes.

Chronology

1790 — Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti, nephew of Pope Pius VI, buys the site with funds from his uncle and demolishes the sixteenth-century palace Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger had built there for Francesco Orsini. Structural impact: a Renaissance palace destroyed to make room. What you see today: nothing of what stood here before — the building is all one campaign, by Cosimo Morelli.
1798 — construction is suspended in February during the Napoleonic occupation. The French take possession until 1802 and confiscate the collection of antiquities inside, though the Duke is reimbursed. Structural impact: four years lost. What you see today: the reason a palace begun in 1790 was still unfinished a quarter-century later.
1809 — Rome is declared an Imperial city by Napoleon; Duke Luigi moves into the palace and is declared mayor. Structural impact: the building becomes an official residence. What you see today: a private house on the scale of a ministry, which is what it became next.
1816 — the Duke dies. The palace is unfinished and the family funds are gone. Structural impact: work stops for good. What you see today: the last palace built in Rome for a papal nephew, and never completed as intended.
1871 — the Braschi Onesti heirs sell the building to the Italian State, which makes it the seat of the Ministry of the Interior. Structural impact: conversion from house to offices. What you see today: the Monument to Marco Minghetti in the piazza outside — he ran that ministry and was prime minister, with offices in this palace.
1922–1943 — under Fascism the palace serves as Mussolini's political headquarters, adorned with a giant sculpture of his face surrounded by the word SI. Structural impact: the façade is dressed for propaganda. What you see today: nothing of it — which is itself the point, and worth knowing while you stand in front of the building.
after 1945 — the palace houses 300 refugee families, and many of the interior frescoes are seriously damaged by the fires they light to keep warm. Structural impact: painted interiors lost. What you see today: the condition of the decoration, which is a record of what the building was asked to do.
1949 — the palace passes to the civic authorities, which had already installed the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna. Structural impact: the building becomes municipal. What you see today: a civic museum rather than a state one, which is why the city's own residents now enter free.
1952 — after extensive conservation, the Museo di Roma is installed here, reopening thirteen years after the war closed it. Structural impact: the present museum layout. What you see today: essentially this.
February 2026 — admission becomes free for residents of Rome and the Città Metropolitana. Structural impact: none. What you see today: a civic museum that the city's own people can walk into without paying.

Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — Palazzo Braschi was commissioned by the papal nephew Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti, son of Count Girolamo Onesti and Giulia Braschi, sister of Pope Pius VI who created him Duke of Nemi; the architect was Cosimo Morelli, the site had been purchased in 1790 by Braschi with funds from Pope Pius VI, and Braschi demolished the 16th-century palace that Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger had built for Francesco Orsini in order to erect his own from the ground up, Construction of Palazzo Braschi was suspended in February 1798 during the Napoleonic occupation of the city, when the French temporarily took possession of it until 1802 and confiscated the recently acquired collection of antiquities it contained though Braschi was reimbursed for them; in 1809, when Rome was declared an Imperial city by Napoleon, Duke Luigi moved into the palace and was declared mayor; and on his death in 1816 the palace remained unfinished and the family funds depleted, In 1871 the Braschi Onesti heirs sold Palazzo Braschi to the Italian State, who made it the seat of the Ministry of Interior; during the Italian fascist period it was used as the political headquarters of Benito Mussolini and was adorned with a giant sculpture of the dictator's face surrounded by the word SI, Italian for YES; after the war it housed 300 refugee families and many of the interior frescoes were seriously damaged by the fires they lit to keep warm; and in 1949 the palace passed to the civic authorities and, following extensive conservation in 1952, the present installation of the museum was effected, The main entrance of Palazzo Braschi is on Via San Pantaleo between Piazza Navona and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and in the piazza is the Monument to Marco Minghetti, who had led the Ministry of the Interior and served as prime minister with offices in this palace; the oval hall inside the main entrance leads to the monumental staircase with its eighteen red granite columns which came from the gallery built by the Emperor Caligula on the banks of the River Tiber, decorated with ancient sculptures and fine stuccoes by Luigi Acquisti inspired by the myth of Achilles; on the piazza at the south-west corner of the palace is the statue of Pasquino; and the Neoclassical architect Giuseppe Valadier designed the chapel on the piano nobile and the white marble facade on the adjacent church of San Pantaleo, The Museo di Roma was founded by the art historian Antonio Munoz, director of the antiquities and fine arts department of the government of Rome, and was the first civic museum of the city, housed in the Pastificio Pantanella, a large former pasta factory in Piazza Bocca della Verita overlooking the Circo Massimo; it opened on 21 April 1930 with Munoz as its first director, closed when the Second World War began in 1939, and re-opened only in 1952 in a new location at Palazzo Braschi, a Neoclassical palace near Piazza Navona which since 1949 had already housed the new Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna (September 2026).
Checked against Museo di Roma — Palazzo Braschi — From February 2026 admission to the Museo di Roma becomes free for residents of Rome and the Citta Metropolitana on showing an identity card at the ticket desk (September 2026).

Museo di Roma – Palazzo Braschi Historical Timeline

Chronology

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