Editing Quirinal Palace

{{Short description|Official residence of the President of Italy}}
{{Infobox Historic building
|name                   = Quirinal Palace
|native_name            = {{lang|it|Palazzo del Quirinale}}
|image                  = Quirinale palazzo e obelisco con dioscuri Roma.jpg
|caption                = The palace seen from Piazza del Quirinale
|location_town          = [[Rome]]
|location_country       = [[Italy]]
|architect              = [[Domenico Fontana]] <br /> [[Carlo Maderno]]
|client                 = [[Pope Gregory XIII]]
|current_tenants        = [[Sergio Mattarella]], as <br /> President of Italy
|completion_date        = 1583
|coordinates            = {{Coord|41|54|00|N|12|29|15|E|display=it}}
|image_size=250
|mapframe-frame-width=250
|mapframe=yes
|mapframe-caption=Click on the map for a fullscreen view
|mapframe-zoom=12
|mapframe-marker=monument
|mapframe-wikidata=yes
}}
The '''Quirinal Palace''' ({{langx|it|Palazzo del Quirinale}} {{IPA|it|paˈlattso del kwiriˈnaːle|}}) is a historic building in [[Rome]], Italy, the main [[official residence]] of the [[President of Italy|President of the Italian Republic]], together with [[Villa Rosebery]] in [[Naples]] and the Tenuta di Castelporziano, an estate on the outskirts of Rome, some {{Convert|25|km|abbr=on}} from the centre of the city. It is located on the [[Quirinal Hill]], the highest of the [[seven hills of Rome]] in an area colloquially called Monte Cavallo. It has served as the residence for thirty [[pope]]s, four [[King of Italy|kings of Italy]] and twelve presidents of the Italian Republic.

The Quirinal Palace, originality a papal residence built by [[Pope Gregory XIII]], was selected by [[Napoleon]] to be his residence ''par excellence'' as [[Emperor of the French|emperor]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Rome%27s+Quirinal+palace+-+Napoleon%27s+broken+dream.-a0516179862 |title=Agence France-Presse, Rome's Quirinal palace - Napoleon's broken dream. |access-date=2018-05-15 |archive-date=2018-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516103055/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Rome%27s+Quirinal+palace+-+Napoleon%27s+broken+dream.-a0516179862 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, he never stayed there because of the French defeat in 1814 and the subsequent [[Concert of Europe|European Restoration]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://palazzo.quirinale.it/Storia/storia_en.html#p9 |title=Quirinale Palace —The Napoleonic Period |access-date=2018-05-15 |archive-date=2018-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520070917/http://palazzo.quirinale.it/Storia/storia_en.html#p9 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The palace extends for an area of {{convert|110500|m2|sqft}} and is the [[List of largest palaces|eleventh-largest palace in the world]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.loveforitaly.it/simboli/il-quirinale-la-residenza-pi-vasta-del-mondo |title=Il Quirinale, la residenza più vasta del mondo |publisher=loveforitaly.it. Retrieved July 18, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927224512/http://www.loveforitaly.it/simboli/il-quirinale-la-residenza-pi-vasta-del-mondo |archive-date=September 27, 2013}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Origins ===
The current site of the palace has been in use since [[Ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] times, as excavations in the gardens testify. On this hill, the Romans built temples for several deities, from [[Flora (mythology)|Flora]] to [[Quirinus]], after whom the hill was named. During the reign of [[Constantine the Great]], the last complex of [[Baths of Constantine (Rome)|Roman baths]] was built here, as the statues of the twins [[Castor and Pollux]] taming the horses decorating the fountain in the square testify. The Quirinal, being the highest hill in Rome, was much sought after and became a popular location for the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|Roman patricians]], who built luxurious villas there. An example is the remains of a villa in the Quirinal gardens, where a [[mosaic]], part of the old floor has been found.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}

=== Foundation of the current palace ===
[[File:DH Collection Quirinale Palace and Papal Garden 1683 by Giovanni Battista Falda.jpg|left|thumb|The palace and garden by [[Giovanni Battista Falda]] in 1683]]

The palace, located on the ''Via del Quirinale'' and facing onto the ''Piazza del Quirinale'', was built in 1583 by [[Pope Gregory XIII]] as a papal summer residence. The Pope, who wanted to find a location which was far away from the humidity and stench coming from the River [[Tiber]] and likewise the unhealthy conditions of the [[Lateran Palace]], chose the Quirinal hill as it was one of the most suitable places in Rome. On the site, there was already a small villa owned by the [[House of Carafa|Carafa]] family and rented to [[Luigi d'Este]]. The Pope commissioned the architect [[Ottaviano Mascherino]] to build a palace with porticoed parallel wings and an internal courtyard by incorporating the Carafa villa, the original nucleus of the palace, later known as the Gregorian building. That project was not fully completed due to the Pope's death in 1585. However, it is still recognisable in the north part of the courtyard, especially in the double loggia facade, topped by the panoramic Torre dei Venti (tower of the winds) or Torrino. To the latter, a bell tower was added according to a project by [[Carlo Maderno]] and [[Francesco Borromini]].{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}

===From the 17th century===
[[File:Cambio della guardia al Palazzo del Quirinale - Festa del tricolore del 7 gennaio 2016.jpg|thumb|[[Cuirassiers Regiment (Italy)|Cuirassiers]], honor guard of the president of Italy, outside the palace]]
[[File:Quirinale cortile interno Roma.jpg|thumb|The Courtyard of Honour]]
[[Pope Paul V]] (r. 1605–1621) commissioned the completion of the work on the main building of the palace.

The palace was also used as the location for [[papal conclave]]s in [[1823 papal conclave|1823]], [[1829 papal conclave|1829]], [[1830–1831 papal conclave|1831]], and [[1846 papal conclave|1846]]. It served as a papal residence and housed the central offices responsible for the civil government of the [[Papal States]] until 1870. In September 1870, what was left of the Papal States was occupied militarily and annexed to the [[Kingdom of Italy]]. Some five months later, in 1871, Rome became the capital of the new Italian state. The palace became the official royal residence of the Kings of Italy, though some of these, notably King [[Victor Emmanuel III]] (reigned 1900&ndash;1946) actually lived in a private residence elsewhere ([[Villa Ada|Villa Savoia]]), leaving the Quirinal to be used simply as a suite of offices and for state functions. The [[1946 Italian institutional referendum|monarchy was abolished in 1946]] and the palace became the [[Presidential palace|official residence]] and workplace for the [[President of Italy|presidents of the Italian Republic]]. Still, some have declined the ''Colle'' residence and kept their usual Roman residence: for example, [[Sandro Pertini]] preferred his old flat near the [[Trevi Fountain]].

The palace's [[façade]] was designed by [[Domenico Fontana]]. Its Great Chapel was designed by [[Carlo Maderno]]. It contains frescos by [[Guido Reni]], but the most famous fresco is the ''Blessing Christ'' by [[Melozzo da Forlì]], placed over the stairs. The palace grounds include a famous set of gardens laid out in the 17th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/giardini.htm |title=I giardini e il Coffee House |publisher=quirinale.it Retrieved December 28, 2014 |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=June 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150607102721/http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/giardini.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Architecture==
===Palace===
[[File:Quirinal Palace - aDSC03542 (39514369174).jpg|thumb|The Great Hall of the Cuirassiers]]
[[File:Quirinal Palace - aDSC03538 (39514374574).jpg|thumb|The Pauline Chapel]]
[[File:Quirinale, Salone delle feste.jpg|thumb|The Great Hall of Banquets]]
[[File:Palazzo del Quirinale (La scala del Mascherino).jpg|thumb|The Mascarino Staircase]]
[[File:Flags ontop Palazzo del Quirinale (Rome).jpg|thumb|The [[Italian flag]] flying on the top of the Quirinal Palace. From left to right, the [[presidential standard of Italy]], the flag of Italy and the [[flag of the European Union]].]]

The palace is composed of the main building, which is built around the majestic courtyard, with the most beautiful halls and rooms of the complex environments that serve as representative of the Presidency of the Republic, while the offices and apartments of the head of state are housed in the Fuga building at the end of the ''Manica lunga'', the long building on the side of Quirinal street (''via del Quirinale'' in Italian). On the ''[[piano nobile]]'' of the ''Manica lunga'' lie the opulent imperial apartments, which were specially arranged, decorated and furnished for two visits of Kaiser [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]] (in 1888 and 1893) and which now houses the monarchs or foreign heads of state visiting the president of the republic.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Imperiali/Imperiali.htm |title=La Manica Lunga e gli Appartamenti Imperiali |publisher=quirinale.it |date=June 2, 2014 |access-date=June 2, 2014 |archive-date=June 24, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140624020820/http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/imperiali/imperiali.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The palace, in its totality, has 1,200 rooms.

The rooms of the palace housed in the main building are:
*The Staircase of Honour
The shape of the staircase was very useful during the papal period since the double-crossed ramp allowed to reach the two main rooms of the papal palace directly: the Throne room, today the Great hall of cuirassiers, and the Consistory room, today the Great hall of banquets, at the time used as papal private apartments.
*The Great Hall of the Cuirassiers
This was the throne room of the papal palace, where ambassadors and dignitaries were received and public audiences were held. The royal guards stood here during the [[Monarchy of Italy|Savoy]] period. Today, the room serves for public audiences, receptions, and solemn ceremonies held by the Presidency of the Republic.
*The Pauline Chapel
It is the largest chapel in the building, built with the same size and shape as the Sistine Chapel so that the same ceremonial could be repeated both in the Vatican and in the Quirinal. Four popes were elected here. Today the chapel hosts concerts and religious ceremonies.
*The First State Room
It is one among the rooms formerly part of the papal private apartments, today hosting informal meetings of the president of the republic on occasion.
*The Room of the Virtues
*The Room of the Flood
*The Room of the Loggias
*The Doorkeepers Room
*The Balcony Room
*The St. John Parlour
*The Yellow Room
The Yellow Room was once part of a seventy-meter long gallery built by [[Pope Alexander VII]], later ordered split by Napoleon to serve as Empress's private residence. It features magnificent yellow fabrics lined to the walls, hence the name of the room. In modern times, under the republic, the Napoleonic decorations were mostly removed, revealing the original ornaments.
*The Augustus Room
This room hosted the throne during the Savoy reign. 
*The Ambassadors Room
This room was used to receive dignitaries before the ceremonies, a purpose it still fulfills.
*The Hercules Room
This room is one of the latest Savoy's interventions opened in the 1940s by dismantling rooms of the private papal apartments. The name derives from the tapestries on the walls representing the twelve labors of Hercules.
*The Cabinets Room
This room was also opened by dismantling rooms of the papal private apartment. It is a passage room; the name derives from the precious cabinets displayed here.
*The Mascarino Staircase
This extraordinary masterpiece of the architect Ottaviano Mascarino is the original staircase of the [[Gregorian Tower|Gregorian]] building. The ramp winds up to aspirate to culminate in a skylight. In the Savoy era, we risked losing this masterpiece as well as all the other rooms of the Gregorian building: some princes wanted it to be destroyed to make room for a large ballroom; the project was eventually halted due to excessive expenses.
*The Loggia of Honour
*The Bees Room
*The Zodiac Room
This room was used as a dining room by the Savoy family.
*The Room of [[Pope Paul V|Paul V]] factories
*The Tapestries Room
The ''enfilade'' of the tapestries room, of the mirrors room and of the great hall of banquets was conceived in the Savoy era for the court galas which were held once a month, on the third Thursday of the month. Arriving from the staircase of honour, you first came across the great Hall of banquets, followed by the mirrors room and by the tapestries room. The tapestries room, in particular, was used as a conversation room.
*The Chapel of the Annunciation
It is the smaller chapel of the palace. In the Savoy era, it was deconsecrated and used by servants to wash dishes since it was close to the zodiac room.
*The Mirrors Room
This room was used by the Savoy as a ballroom. Here today are held audiences of the president of the republic with few participants and the oath of the [[Constitutional Court of Italy|Judges of the Constitutional Court]].
*The Great Hall of Banquets
In the papal era, this room was used as the consistory room where the Cardinal's College met. From the Savoy period onwards, banquets and state dinners have been held here. Today, the new government is also sworn in here.
*The Bronzino Room
Here the president of the republic meets the ''entourage'' of visiting foreign dignitaries. The name of the room derives from the tapestries on display, made on [[Agnolo Bronzino]]'s own design.
*The Druso Room 
*The president's former audience room
*The Lilla Tapestries Toom
*The Napoleonic Parlour 
*The Piffetti Library
*The Music Room
*The War Room or Victory Room
*The Peace Room
*The Ladies Room

===Gardens===
[[File:Quirinale, Roma. Giardini (cropped).jpg|thumb|Gardens of the palace]]
[[File:Coffee House of the Quirinale.jpg|thumb|Coffee House]]
The Quirinal Gardens, famous for the privileged position that makes them almost an "island" elevated above Rome, were, over the centuries, changed depending on the tastes and needs of the papal court.

The current arrangement complements the garden "formal" seventeenth century facing the original core of the building with the garden "romantic" in the second half of the eighteenth century, preserving at that time the elegant Coffee House built by [[Ferdinando Fuga]] as reception room of [[Pope Benedict XIV|Benedict XIV Lambertini]], decorated by paintings of [[Pompeo Batoni]] and [[Giovanni Paolo Panini|Giovanni Paolo Pannini]].

Within the Quirinal gardens lies the famous [[water organ]]<ref>{{harvnb|Fronzuto|2007|pp=502–504}}</ref> built between 1997 and 1999 by [[Barthélemy Formentelli]] based on the characteristics of the previous nineteenth-century organ. The organ is fed by a waterfall with a jump of 18 meters and has a single keyboard of 41 notes with a first [[short octave]], without [[Pedal keyboard|pedalboard]].

Overall, the Quirinal gardens extend over 4 hectares (10 acres).<ref>Larger, therefore, than those of some comparable buildings, as, for example, the [[Élysée Palace]], with only 1.5 hectares, the [[Hôtel Matignon]], the residence of the French prime minister, with 3 hectares, and the grounds of the [[White House]], with 7.3 hectares, all outdone by [[Buckingham Palace]], with its 17 hectares of parkland.</ref>

By means of a trap door located in the gardens, entry can be gained to the archaeological excavations that have unearthed the remains of the original temple to the god [[Quirinus]] and some [[Insula (building)|insulae]] of the [[Roman Empire|imperial age]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/giardini.htm |title=I giardini e il Coffee House |publisher=quirinale.it |date=December 28, 2014 |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=June 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150607102721/http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/giardini.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/piante.htm |title=La struttura del giardino e le piante |publisher=quirinale.it |date=December 28, 2014 |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=November 10, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110192008/http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/piante.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/boschetto.htm |title=Il Boschetto |publisher=quirinale.it |date=December 28, 2014 |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=October 3, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141003150235/http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/statico/palazzo/luoghi/Giardini/boschetto.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Villa Rosebery]] – the retreat residence of the president in [[Naples]]
*[[Chigi Palace|Palazzo Chigi]] – the seat and official residence of the [[Prime Minister of Italy|Prime Minister]]
*[[Palazzo Madama, Rome|Palazzo Madama]] – the seat of the [[Senate of the Republic (Italy)|Senate of the Italian Republic]]
**[[Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome|Palazzo Giustinani]] – the official residence of the [[President of the Senate of the Republic (Italy)|president of the Senate]]
*[[Palazzo Montecitorio]] – the seat of the [[Chamber of Deputies (Italy)|Italian Chamber of Deputies]]
*[[Palazzo della Consulta]] – the seat of the [[Constitutional Court of Italy]]

==References==

<references />
*{{cite book |first=Claudio |last=Rendina |title=Enciclopedia di Roma |publisher=Newton & Compton |location=Rome |year=1999}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20191011132330/https://www.nationalgeographic.it/italia/2011/01/02/foto/quirinale_diario_fotografico-157510/1/ Dentro il Quirinale, diario fotografico]
*{{cite book |first=Graziano |last=Fronzuto |title=Organi di Roma. Guida pratica orientativa agli organi storici e moderni |location=Florence |year=2007 |isbn=978-88-222-5674-4}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Quirinal Palace}}
*[https://www.quirinale.it/ Official site of Presidency of the Italian Republic]
*[http://exibit.quirinale.it/qvv/visitavirtuale/palazzo.html Virtual tour of Quirinal Palace]
*[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=rome&ll=41.900944,12.487153&spn=0.006584,0.010060&t=k&hl=en Satellite image of the palace and its garden] Note: One block northeast of the Gardens is the [[Palazzo Barberini]]. Midway along the long southeast wing flanking the garden, across the street is the small dome of [[Bernini]]'s [[Sant'Andrea al Quirinale]]. At the next corner north is the inconspicuous church by [[Borromini]], [[San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane]]. Diagonal and to the west of the facade, amid a warren of small streets, is the turquoise tub-like polygon of the [[Trevi Fountain]].

{{Sequence
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[[Category:Houses completed in 1583]]
[[Category:Episcopal palaces of the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:Official residences in Italy]]
[[Category:Palaces in Rome]]
[[Category:Baroque palaces in Rome]]
[[Category:Presidential residences]]
[[Category:Royal residences in Italy]]
[[Category:Sites of papal elections]]
[[Category:Rome R. II Trevi]]