Art&Style

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM)

by Lavinia Colonna Preti
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

Part of the spaces open to the public of Palazzo Colonna, the best preserved noble residence in the city, you can visit the emotional apartments full of works of art and unique objects of Princess Isabelle Colonna, remembered as “the true queen of Rome”.

Its owners like to call it a “family museum”. And it might seem reductive if it wasn’t for the fact that the Colonna family, who have lived here for 31 generations, have been protagonists of 8 centuries of history, counting among their descendants a Pope, Martin V, and countless personalities, as well as illustrious friends, from Caravaggio, who took refuge here after his first escape, to Michelangelo.

On the other hand, entering the Palace, it is difficult to foresee from the outside the majesty of a residence that from the historical core of the 12th century, when the family settled on the slopes of the Quirinale Hill, grew from century to century in size and works of art in step with its political and social rise.

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

A remarkable court lady, intelligent, cultured, conservative in the purest and most coherent sense, after the fall of the monarchy she found herself replacing Maria José as the “queen regent”.


(la Repubblica, 18 November 1984)

Today Palazzo Colonna with its famous Baroque Gallery is managed by the Palazzo Colonna Foundation established in 2015 by Prince Don Prospero Colonna and his wife, Princess Donna Jeanne Colonna Pavoncelli, with the aim of preserving the collections and making them available to the public.

The visit to the Palace begins right from Isabelle’s Apartments. After passing the first courtyard, you enter the Baldachin Room, and then the rooms that made up the apartments of Princess Colonna who lived there until 1984, still preserved today exactly as when she was alive, a rare example of elegance and love of the arts.

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

Isabelle, born in 1889 to the important Sursock family of Byzantine origin who had settled in Lebanon since the 17th century, married Prince Marcantonio Colonna, moved to Rome, and here she became an important point of reference for the cultural and institutional world of the time.

Among the most beautiful rooms of her apartments, are the Vanvitelli Room, which contains 37 views by Gaspar van Wittel, the largest collection of works by the artist, and the Pink Room which houses 9 delightful landscapes by Jan Brueghel the Elder painted on copper.

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

Following these, we find the wonderful rooms used for the princess’s daily life, such as the Salone della Fontana where there is a curious porphyry crocodile, one of the few traces of the Roman temple of Serapis on whose ruins Palazzo Colonna was built, or the night clock created for the sleepless nights of Pope Alexander VI, with a mechanism inside that moves the numbers backlit by a candle.

A little further on, there is a cozy lounge with an original double sofa, called “confidenza”, and many wonderful textile furnishings in San Leucio silks. This room recalls the numerous meetings that took place within these walls, such as the receptions for Queen Elizabeth II and Jackie Kennedy.

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

A true and unique marvel are the floors of the halls. Princess Isabelle had, in fact, replaced the traditional covering with oriental marble, commissioning true masterpieces of mastery and originality, such as, in the Ballroom, the floor that features all the symbols of the Colonna family such as, in addition to the column, the siren, the black eagle, and the crescent moons symbolizing the victory of the Battle of Lepanto.

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

This is an apartment from which Isabelle also had to escape from, as evidenced by the secret passage, still visible and passable today, which was used by the princess to reach to the Spanish Embassy upon the arrival of the Nazis after the sad 8th September 1943.

Fortunately, she had managed to hide all her beloved works of art, which are still here, exactly as she had thought and conceived them, to give us moments of eternal beauty.

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

The visit to Isabelle’s Apartments also includes the Galleries, the Pio Pavilion and the Gardens.

The Secret

The Colonnas are an ancient Roman family whose history began nine centuries ago. In 31 generations it has given birth to a pope, 23 cardinals, and many personalities of civil and political life in Italy.

Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets
Palazzo Colonna: Isabelle’s Apartments (RM) — Lazio Secrets

Useful Info

Galleria Colonna
Piazza SS. Apostoli 66
00187 Roma
Tel. +39 06 6784350

Visits every Friday and Saturday morning
Entrance: 20 euro, for the various options consult the Palazzo Colonna website

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