Palazzo Barberini
Discover Palazzo Barberini
Last updated on September 29, 2026Overview
Palazzo Barberini is a seventeenth-century palace facing Piazza Barberini in the Rione Trevi, and it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica — the main national collection of older paintings in Rome and one of the most important painting collections in Italy.
The site was a garden and vineyard on the Quirinal Hill that the Sforza family had built a palazzetto on around 1549. In it was bought from Alessandro Sforza, Duca di Segni, by Maffeo Barberini, who two years earlier had been elected Pope Urban VIII. He commissioned Carlo Maderno to turn it into the family's new residence.
Maderno did not demolish the villa. He wrapped it: the Sforza wing, the part facing today's Piazza Barberini, was joined to a parallel wing by a central hall, producing a floor plan in the shape of an H — an open-winged structure enclosing an immense garden of rare plants, secret courtyards and formal beds. The result was a new kind of building, an urban seat of princely power with a garden front that behaved like a suburban villa.
What a visitor sees is the work of three architects in succession, a national collection of paintings, and one of the most consequential painted ceilings in Europe.
Introduction
Palazzo Barberini is a seventeenth-century palace facing Piazza Barberini in the Rione Trevi, and it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica — the main national collection of older paintings in Rome and one of the most important painting collections in Italy.
The site was a garden and vineyard on the Quirinal Hill that the Sforza family had built a palazzetto on around 1549. In it was bought from Alessandro Sforza, Duca di Segni, by Maffeo Barberini, who two years earlier had been elected Pope Urban VIII. He commissioned Carlo Maderno to turn it into the family's new residence.
Maderno did not demolish the villa. He wrapped it: the Sforza wing, the part facing today's Piazza Barberini, was joined to a parallel wing by a central hall, producing a floor plan in the shape of an H — an open-winged structure enclosing an immense garden of rare plants, secret courtyards and formal beds. The result was a new kind of building, an urban seat of princely power with a garden front that behaved like a suburban villa.
What a visitor sees is the work of three architects in succession, a national collection of paintings, and one of the most consequential painted ceilings in Europe.
Architecture
The plan is an H, and that was new. Maderno was asked to enclose the existing Villa Sforza in a vast block on the model of Palazzo Farnese. He declined to demolish it: the Sforza wing, facing what is now Piazza Barberini, is connected to a parallel wing by a central hall, leaving the structure open-winged around an immense garden with rare plants, secret courtyards and formal beds. The result was precedent-setting — an urban seat of princely power with a garden front that behaves like a suburban villa.
You enter through the portico facade on via delle Quattro Fontane, above which rises a false glass loggia, in all likelihood designed by Bernini, who took over construction in 1629.
The two staircases are the building's argument. The monumental entrance hall is reached on one side by a square-shafted staircase designed by Bernini and on the other by an extraordinary oval helicoidal staircase — Borromini's. Take both. The difference between the architect who got the commission and the architect who was passed over is not a matter of documents here; it is a matter of what happens to a stair when each of them designs one.
And the ceiling is the room. Pietro da Cortona's Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power fills the salon vault. It is a panegyric — a painted argument that the Barberini were divinely appointed — and it was influential enough that panoramic ceilings across Europe, Pozzo's at Sant'Ignazio among them, descend from it. It was painted to be read from directly beneath, which is why it looks incoherent from the doorway.
How It Was Built and Evolved Over Time
It was built around a house that was already there, which is why it is the shape it is. The ground was a sloping, semi-urban garden and vineyard on the Quirinal, acquired by the Sforza around 1549 and built on with a modest palazzetto. When Urban VIII bought the site in the brief he gave Carlo Maderno was to enclose that villa within a vast Renaissance block along the lines of Palazzo Farnese. Maderno's solution was to absorb rather than clear: the Sforza wing survives inside the palace, joined to a new parallel wing by a central hall. The H-plan is a consequence of not knocking something down.
The construction changed hands mid-build, and the building shows it. Maderno began in with his nephew Francesco Borromini assisting. He died in , and the commission to oversee the works went not to Borromini but to Bernini — then in his early thirties and known chiefly as a sculptor. Borromini remained on the site anyway, and the two worked alongside one another. A visitor can stand between the results: Bernini's square-shafted staircase on one side of the entrance hall, Borromini's oval helicoidal one on the other.
The garden was part of the structure, not a leftover. Maderno's open-winged arrangement was designed to hold an immense garden with rare plants, secret courtyards and formal beds — the villa half of a building that is otherwise a palace. That combination, an urban seat of princely power with a suburban garden front, is what made the design precedent-setting rather than merely large.
The last great campaign was paint rather than stone. In the 1630s Pietro da Cortona covered the salon vault with the Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power, and the room stopped being a hall and became the point of the palace. Its influence on the decoration of palatial and church ceilings across Europe outlasted the family's power by centuries.
Then it became a museum, which is the change most visitors are standing inside. The palace now houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, so the rooms a papal family lived in are hung with the national painting collection — and the Italian Institute of Numismatics occupies part of the building too.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in Palazzo Barberini? The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome — including Raphael's La Fornarina, Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes and Hans Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII — inside a Baroque palace built by Maderno, Bernini and Borromini.
Does the ticket really cover two palaces? Yes. The €15.00 ticket admits you to Palazzo Barberini and to the Galleria Corsini, and it remains valid for twenty days.
Is it cheaper if I am young? Substantially. EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2.00 for the same two-palace, twenty-day ticket.
Is it open on Mondays? No. Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00 to 19.00, with the ticket office closing at 18.00.
Who built it? Carlo Maderno began in 1627, assisted by his nephew Francesco Borromini. Maderno died in 1629; Borromini was passed over and Bernini was given oversight, but Borromini stayed and the two worked together.
What is the famous ceiling? Pietro da Cortona's Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power, over the salon. It became the model for panoramic ceilings across Europe.
Why are there bees everywhere? Three bees are the arms of the Barberini family, and Maffeo Barberini became Pope Urban VIII in 1623 — so they appear under the papal tiara and crossed keys throughout the building.
Can I see the Mithraeum? The Barberini Mithraeum is visitable on a separate guided tour rather than on the general ticket.
When is it free? The first Sunday of every month, and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. Booking is recommended for those days.