Castello Odescalchi, Bracciano

Administrative and representative center of the important families who owned it, the Castle tells its six centuries of history through ancient weapons, furnishings and paintings, books and manuscripts, decorations and frescoes.

Open to the public since 1952 by the will of Prince Livio IV Odescalchi, today the Castle of Bracciano represents a dynamic reality, combining its museal vocation with intense activity in the organization of events.

The rooms of the Odescalchi Castle of Bracciano preserve a rich collection of art objects gathered by Prince Baldassarre Odescalchi from the second half of the nineteenth century. A lover of the arts and a refined connoisseur, he was close to the international and progressive cultural environment that animated post-unification Rome. The interest in decorative arts, which had led the prince to promote and support the foundation of the Rome Artistic Industrial Museum, was also evident in the massive acquisition campaign aimed at reconstructing the Castle’s furnishings dispersed during the French domination. The precious collection of ceramics testifies to the attention paid to Italian maiolica, particularly sixteenth-century, which characterized the nineteenth century. The busts of the twelve Caesars, the rare sixteenth-century hourglass, the eighteenth-century Sicilian wrought iron bed, together with many other objects, complete the Castle collections gathered by Prince Baldassarre with the intention of making his historic residence a true Museum, where objects could engage in dialogue with the architecture that houses them, evoking for the visitor the taste, customs, and splendor of a fifteenth-century ancient castle.