Palazzo del Collegio Romano
The Palazzo del Collegio Romano is a monumental building in the city center of Rome ( Rione Pigna ) . The Palazzo was begun in 1582 for the Collegio Romano , a Jesuit school , from which, after the end of the Papal States , the (1870) Pontifical Gregorian University and the Istituto Massimiliano Massimo emerged. Today the palace houses the first official headquarters of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Property , a state high school and a branch of a state library for archeology and art history . The church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Campo Marzio also belongs to the building complex .
history
In 1534 Ignatius von Loyola founded the Jesuit order . With a Jesuit college opened in Messina in 1549 , the order began its commitment to the school system, which continues to this day. Because of the lack of public schools in Rome and for the training of prospective religious and clergy , the Collegio Romano was founded on February 18, 1551 . The initially very small school on today's Via dell'Aracoeli soon had an enormous number of visitors, which is why it had to move several times in the following years. Thanks to the support of Pope Gregory XIII. to be completed with the construction of the Palazzo del Collegio Romano. The Collegio Romano, which included all school levels up to university, was able to start operations in the new building on October 28, 1584.
The current building complex between Piazza Sant'Ignazio and Via del Caravita in the north, Via del Collegio Romano in the east, Piazza del Collegio Romano in the south and Via di Sant'Ignazio in the west was built over time. The original part in the east and north was planned under the direction of the architect and Jesuit Giuseppe Valeriano and probably also the master builder Bartolomeo Ammanati and built from 1582 to 1584. The remaining parts of the complex to the south and west and the church of Sant'Ignazio were not built until the second half of the 17th century. An older church (Chiesa dell'Annunziata) had to give way for the expansion .
The construction of Sant'Ignazio also required the renovation of the Bibliotheca Maior (or Bibliotheca Secreta ), the largest of the five libraries in the Jesuit College. The so-called Crociera , a large cross-shaped hall , was built for the library . From Bibliotheca Maior the Roman originated 1873-1876 National Library , which by a transition with the adjacent Library Casanatense was connected. In 1975 the national library moved to a building on Castro Pretorio . Since 1989, the Crociera has been used by the Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte , which has its headquarters in the Palazzo Venezia .
The Collegio Romano was known not only for the excellent quality of teaching, but also for research in various sciences. In this context, the Museum Kircherianum deserves special mention, a baroque cabinet of curiosities that was set up by the polymath Athanasius Kircher in a side wing of the palace. In the course of the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773, the collection of rarities had to be given up except for the scientific, ethnographic and archaeological parts. The latter went to various Italian state museums until 1915. The Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico "Luigi Pigorini" left the Palazzo del Collegio Romano between 1962 and 1977.
Giuseppe Calandrelli had a small observatory (Torre Calandrelli) built on the palazzo in 1787 for the chair of astronomy , which the German Jesuit father Christophorus Clavius once held at the Collegio Romano , to which two further small towers were added in 1855 under Angelo Secchi . The observatory was known among the Romans for setting the exact time. According to the clock on the southern main facade of the palazzo, people generally orientated themselves. Today's weather service of the Italian Air Force emerged from the observatory in 1876 .
In the course of the incorporation of the Papal States into the Kingdom of Italy , the Palazzo del Collegio Romano was confiscated by the Italian government. The Collegio Romano had to move out. The university section came to the neighboring Palazzo Gabrielli-Borromeo in Via del Seminario , where it was elevated to the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1873 . It has been located in Piazza della Pilotta since 1930 , where a new building was erected for the University opposite the Pontifical Biblical Institute . The primary and high school section of the Collegio Romano was dissolved in 1870, but was rebuilt in 1879 under the name Istituto Massimiliano Massimo . The Palazzo del Collegio Romano served as barracks at the end of 1870 and beginning of 1871, then the state humanistic grammar school Liceo Ginnasio Ennio Quirino Visconti was established there. The church viewed this as usurpation ; the tensions finally ended only in 1929 with the Lateran Treaties . Nevertheless, the later Pope Pius XII received at the Liceo Visconti . his school education. The state high school in the Palazzo del Collegio Romano still exists today.
After the prehistoric and ethnographic museum and the national library left the palazzo, the newly established Ministry of Cultural Property moved there in 1975 with its first minister, Giovanni Spadolini . It also set up a specialized library there for the needs of the ministry. Only the Biblioteca di Archeologia e di Storia dell'Arte mentioned above is open to the public today .
Web links
- Description on the website of the Ministry of Culture
- Description on romasegreta.it
- Biblioteca Nazionale di Archeologia e di Storia dell'Arte to the "Crociera" (with picture)
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 54.2 " N , 12 ° 28 ′ 47.4" E