"The so-called ‘Palazzetto’ in the Palazzo di Venezia Complex: a small construction history among the huge transformation events of the Rome centre in the early twentieth century"

The paper illustrates the events relating to the translation of the so-called “Palazzetto di Venezia” from the site where it had been built in 1464 – at the behest of Pope Paolo II – to its current position not far from the previous one. The Viridarium, so the earliest palazzetto was called, had been conceived as the pope’s private garden, accessible directly from the piano nobile of his residence (the current palazzo Venezia) by means of a private passage and connected to the adjacent Capitoline hill by a raised walkway supported by arches. In the framework of the great urban transformations related to the construction of the monument dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II (first monarch of the new unified Italy) on the northern slope of the Capitoline Hill, in the early twentieth century the Viridarium was demolished and rebuilt – according to the pre-existent building’s architectural language – in a position which still allowed the connection with Palazzo Venezia without interfering with the organisation of the new great plaza realised in place of the historical urban fabric. These consecutive building sites – demolition before, reconstruction then – lasted from 1908 to 1911 and involved a series of interventions on Palazzo Venezia’s masonry structure itself, aimed at strengthening the tower to which the Viridarium was previously adjacent and at modifying the wing of the palace which the new Palazzetto had to join with. Simultaneous to the overall transformations involving the palazzo Venezia were the events directly connected to the construction of the new Palazzetto. After a brief description of the general context, the core of the paper aims to clarify restrictions that the design had to face to as well as the choice of the construction techniques. These issues are here investigated through the analysis of the archive documents – partially preserved in Rome, partially in Wien (being the building complex at that time still property of the Austro-Hungarian government) – and information coming from the on-site investigations executed on the building body. What emerges is a quite precise picture that describes the building as the product of a contemporary constructive site which is still characterised by the persistence of a masonry conception of the building organism, implemented, however, using the materials of industrial production such us bricks and metal beams. The contemporary materials employed in the construction conflict with the building’s traditional appearance which is simulated by the decorative apparatus (coffered wooden ceilings and vaulted spaces) overlapped on the real structural framework. However, the building incorporates parts of the earliest Viridarium such as the stone elements of the cloister now clearly recognizable in the current Palazzetto’s portico and loggia.