Palazzo Venezia (Museo Nazionale) site features

Palazzo Venezia is a massive, plain, fortress-like block of warm ochre brick and travertine on the north-west side of Piazza Venezia, and the first impression is of weight: small windows set in a very large wall, a crenellated top, and almost no ornament at street level.

A tower stands at its corner. The campanile of the adjoining basilica rises in brick beside the palace block, with open arched bell stages near the top — the one vertical in an otherwise horizontal mass.

Behind it is the surprise. The Giardino Grande is a walled garden the size of a city block, with tall palms, clipped hedges, gravel walks and a loggia along one side. It is enclosed on all four sides by the palace and its neighbours, so the traffic noise drops away almost completely.

Inside, the rooms are large and bare-walled. This was a papal residence of the fifteenth century, and the galleries have the proportions of state rooms — high ceilings, deep window embrasures — now hung and cased for display.

The objects are small and dense, which changes how you look. Instead of marble figures in the open, there are cases of ceramics, tapestries and carpets on the walls, small bronzes and enamels, terracotta sketch-models, carved wooden figures, lace and headdresses, wrought iron, cassoni, and racked arms and armour — a museum you read at arm's length rather than across a room.

And part of it is currently shut. The Sale Storiche — the historic state rooms — are temporarily closed to the public for restoration, so the grandest interiors of the palace are not part of the visit at present.

The Giardino Grande

A walled garden with free entry every day from 9.30 to 19.30, last entry 18.45.

The ceramics

A very vast collection, swollen by the whole ceramic sets that came in between 1924 and 1926.

The textiles

Tapestries, carpets, Coptic fabrics, modern fabrics of sacred and profane use, lace, headdresses and hair ornaments of various manufactures and fashions.

The painting

Paintings on panel and canvas of the 15th to 18th centuries and eighteenth-century pastels.

The sculpture

A rich series of Italian and German wooden sculptures, a valuable collection of terracotta bozzetti and reliefs of the 1500s and 1600s, and early medieval and Renaissance marbles.

The arms and armour

A considerable collection of ancient arms and armour.

Furniture and metalwork

A vast repertoire of cassoni and furniture in general, of wrought iron and of door and window fittings.

The Sale Storiche

The historic state rooms — temporarily closed to the public for restoration.