Il Palazzo del Quirinale can be visited by reservation. There is a lot to see in the Quirinale.
The Quirinal in the era before Christ
In the area of the Quirinal hill, in the 4th century BC, arose the temple of the god Quirinus which gave the hill its name, and the temple of the goddess Salus where ceremonies were held to ensure the state’s well-being; the most imposing presences on the hill were certainly the Baths of Constantine and the Temple of Serapis, built by Caracalla in 217 AD. From the ancient Roman temple come the two sculptural groups of the Dioscuri, whose constant presence on the Quirinal led the hill to take the name of Monte Cavallo.
The Quirinal hill is one of the heights of Rome consisting of a massive hill, divided from the Pincian Hill to the north by the Sallustian Valley, and from the Viminal Hill to the south by the Quirinal Valley, later of San Vitale. On the northwest and south slopes it originally appeared steep with steep accesses, different altitudes now barely appreciated in today’s urban fabric with elevations deeply altered especially by the construction of papal palaces.
The collis Quirinalis
In ancient times, the Quirinal was the collis par excellence and the individual summits distinguished there were also called colles. The name Quirinal, therefore, ended up indicating the entire hill which was actually divided into four heights: collis Latiaris, collis Mucialis or Sanqualis, collis Salutaris, and collis Quirinalis.
The collis Quirinalis had great strategic importance and was solidly fortified from the earliest age; later it was included within the city walls, called Servian walls (4th century BC). According to archaeological and documentary data, the collis Quirinalis would correspond to the area between the Collina gate of the Servian walls and the via delle Quattro Fontane (where the Quirinalis gate is to be placed); the collis Salutaris between this and via della Dataria (corresponding to the Salutaris gate); the collis Mucialis between this and Largo Magnanapoli (where the Sanqualis gate was located); the collis Latiaris between this and the saddle that originally connected the Quirinal and the Capitoline Hill, a saddle later cut at the will of Emperor Trajan for the construction of his forum.
Alta Semita
The main road axis of the hill was made up of a summit path, called Alta Semita (today’s via del Quirinale – via XX Settembre) which connected the porta Salutaris with porta Collina running from west to east towards the Sabine territory. On the hill were located important places of worship, among the most ancient those of Quirinus, Salus and Semosancus or, like the more recent temple that Emperor Domitian erected on the site of his birthplace and the grandest temple of Serapis that Emperor Caracalla built in the 3rd century.
The Quirinal in the Imperial Era
In the territorial administrative division of the Augustan age, the Quirinal was included in Region VI (Alta Semita). In the imperial era, the regional boundaries shifted with the new Aurelian age enclosure (3rd century AD), which included areas that were previously suburban such as the Castra Praetoria and the Horti Sallustiani.
The district was characterized from the Republican age as an aristocratic residential area, a specific connotation preserved also in the imperial era; many noble residences among which those of Pomponius Atticus, friend of Cicero, of the Gens Flavia, of the Claudi, of Fulvius Plautianus; among the hill’s inhabitants the literary sources recall the poet Martial. The two male statues in the Quirinal square depict the Dioscuri, while holding the reins of the rearing horses, according to a rare iconographic scheme that appears from the Severan age (3rd century AD).
The Quirinal from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century
The sculptures, probably belonging to the so-called Temple of Serapis, were always reused on the hill in the Baths of Constantine, on the occasion of the renovations following the earthquake of 443 AD. Interest in the two sculptural groups was rekindled in the fifteenth century, when Pope Pius II commissioned between 1469 and 1470 a first partial restoration of the two colossi. However, it was in the following century under Sixtus V that the sculptures, included in the program of expansion and embellishment of the square, were the object of a complete restoration carried out in 1585 and were moved to the sides of a marble basin to create a monumental background for the road axis coming from Porta Pia. Finally, it was Pius VI in 1786 who placed the sculptural group in the current position, on the sides of the obelisk coming from the Mausoleum of Augustus, while in 1818 Pius VII replaced the original basin with a granite basin coming from the Roman Forum.
The Quirinal in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages the hill became populated with churches, noblemans’ palaces, and towers, while the ancient buildings fell into ruin and their marbles began to be used for constructing new buildings. In the 1400s and early 1500s, around the square and along the ancient via Alta Semita (today via del Quirinale), palaces and villas of nobles and prelates were arranged, including Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, owner of a villa with a vineyard on the site where today stands the Palace of the Quirinal.
The Quirinal in the Sixteenth Century
In 1550, the Carafa villa was rented by Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, also owner of the Villa d’Este in Tivoli, who transformed the vineyard into a very elaborate garden, enriched with fountains, water features, and ancient sculptures. The beauty and pleasantness of Cardinal d’Este’s vineyard prompted Pope Gregory XIII (1572-85) to expand the small villa at his own expense, entrusting the construction of the new building to architect Ottaviano Mascarino. Between 1583 and 1585, he created an elegant villa with a porticoed and loggia façade connected inside by a splendid spiral staircase; the so-called “torrino” (tower), a belvedere crowning the small palace, is also attributed to Mascarino’s design.
After Gregory XIII’s death, his successor Sixtus V (1585-90) purchased in 1587 from the Carafa the villa of Monte Cavallo to make it the summer residence of the pontificate. However, the small villa built by Mascarino was not sufficient to accommodate the papal court and satisfy its needs for representation, so Sixtus V assigned architect Domenico Fontana to enlarge the building by constructing a long wing towards the square and a second palace on via del Quirinale, thus forming a large internal courtyard.
Sixtus V also took care to arrange the square, providing for the restoration of the sculptural group of the “Dioscuri“, which was completed with the addition of a fountain. Sixtus V died at the Quirinal, and the renovation project of the Palace was completed by his successors. Particularly significant was the intervention of Clement VIII (1592-1605), who concentrated his attention on the garden, ordering among other things the construction of the monumental Organ Fountain, decorated with mosaics, stuccoes, statues, and animated by the sound of a water organ.
The Quirinal Today
The architecture of the Palace in the appearance it still retains today was completed during the pontificate of Pope Paul V Borghese (1605-21). Architect Flaminio Ponzio was responsible for constructing the wing towards the garden including, among other things, the Honor Staircase, the great Consistory hall (today Banquet Hall), and the Annunziata Chapel, frescoed by Guido Reni with some collaborators.
