Roman Aristocracy | Inside a 500-Year-Old Palace in Rome

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:02]Just steps [music] from the Pantheon, hidden within the maze of narrow streets that define the historic center of Rome, stands Palazzo Patrizi, one of the city's great surviving aristocratic residences.

[00:00:15]For more than 500 years, this Palazzo has remained connected to one of Rome's noble families, preserving a world that once sat at the very [music] center of papal society.

[00:00:27]While millions pass by here every year to go to Rome's most famous sites, few realize that behind these doors lies a remarkable sequence of historic rooms still filled with family collections, portraits, frescoes, and memories accumulated over centuries and centuries.

[00:00:49]Today, we're given a rare private access inside Palazzo Patrizi with the Marchese Cosimo Patrizi himself as we begin in the grand reception hall to reveal how Rome's aristocratic families once lived in the very heart of the eternal city.

[00:01:05][music] The Palazzo offers more than architecture beauty. It offers a living connection to the social and cultural history of Rome itself.

[00:01:15]And after exploring the Palazzo, we step outside once more into the streets of Rome to view the Pantheon.

[00:01:23]A monument [music] whose story stretches back nearly 2,000 years, standing only moments away from this extraordinary residence.

[00:01:34]In fact, all of those great names that you know from the past, from the Aldobrandini to the Barberini, the Colonna, the Doria Pamphili, and the Patrizi, they're all here, alive and well. Many of them living in their historic palaces. It's true, and it's also very nice to say that it has been passed for centuries. When we arrived to Rome, here exactly where in 1642 buying from another family that is Aldobrandini and also that the Patrizi Palace is 100% owned by the family. This is I think is a very important thing to say. So this is your family's stem as much.

[00:02:11]>> Okay, we will see black and white. To tell the truth is silver and black. The reason why the family has chosen these colors we we we really think that can be a very nice story that brings back to the foundation of Rome to tell the truth. Rome everybody I think and I hope knows that has been founded by Romolo and Remus.

[00:02:35]Fed by a wolf, they grow up. They didn't go very well together. No. At the point that one killed the other one.

[00:02:41]>> That's right. So Romulus kills Remus.

[00:02:44]>> Remus has two sons calling Senio and Ascanio. They didn't want to stay in the place where uncle has killed the father.

[00:02:52]So they escaped with two horses, one black, one gray.

[00:02:56]I know that.

[00:02:57]>> Okay. So they they have founded two other cities. Senio founded Siena, Ascanio founded Asciano. So we really think that this is the reason why they have chosen these colors. So the Patrizi family comes from Siena and your link with Siena and Rome is that Siena was founded by the son of Remus.

[00:03:15]>> Exactly. Oh how nice.

[00:03:16]>> This is also the reason why Siena has a symbol that is a wolf, the symbol of Rome.

[00:03:21]So when you're outside the cathedral in Siena, in fact, you see the wolf, Senio and Ascanio.

[00:03:26]>> Yeah. Well, so this is here on your floor and all along here I'm looking at these are these must be members of your family, are they? Absolutely. Following the father's lane, this is our ancestors that have married Patrizi because Patrizi have been extinguished the first half of the 18th century because the last member of Patrizi have married Naro. Being the last one, the family name has been brought to the children. And the coat of arms of the family are the means Oh here, these moons here, these crescents. Okay.

[00:03:58]>> Because they have participated a very important battle named Lepanto's battle.

[00:04:02]Okay.

[00:04:03]>> 1571 >> 1571 >> 7th of October >> Okay. Exactly. Two members have participated to the Lepanto's battle. So there was a battle between the Catholic South and the Turks.

[00:04:12]>> Exactly. Naturally enough, we won.

[00:04:14]Exactly. This is the entrance hall that you go upstairs and you can see how grand it is and you can see how excited I am to be here cuz I we're just looking at great things. But behind there's this great trompe l'oeil window here.

[00:04:27]>> The story of this window nobody knew that up to 2000 because there was another painting in place of that window and they have attributed to Giampaolo Panini. This is all part of the historical Yeah. palazzo.

[00:05:30]So here, this is the sitting room then.

[00:05:32]>> [music] >> If you notice, then these are all canvas where all facts are related to astronomy and astrological themes. So these are researchers studying the declination of the sun. Oh, this is a Flavio Gioia, the one who has invented the compass. So it's really very interesting with all Roman monuments such as Vesta Temple.

[00:05:50]Yes. So, it's a thought of ancient Rome that you you don't have plenty of time to go and see all these kind of things, you come and see me and you can see part of Rome. So, it's really really very very interesting. So, in stately homes, these great historical homes, you live in them, [music] but you have this great responsibility of keeping them going.

[00:06:09]>> Absolutely. I always want to say and imagine that, "Okay, I'm the owner."

[00:06:13]But, I prefer to be the guardian. Okay, you can see another time the coat of arm, but also behind there is a flag, very important flag. That is the flag that is the one that was before the white and yellow flag of the Vatican.

[00:06:26]This is also named L'antico Laboro Constantiniano. Constantino was the Roman emperor who for the first time has accepted the presence of Christian community. And these were the colors.

[00:06:35]The Pope decided to change the flag. Why he wanted to change the flag? Mhm.

[00:06:40]Because this was the flag for Rome and he wanted to have a flag for the world.

[00:06:47]So, here we're in the music room and I can see a painting which is modern.

[00:06:52]Yeah, she's my mom that last year sadly left his life. Uh but anyway, the thing that I was going always to ask my mother Yes. is what there is underneath the parquet. Okay?

[00:07:04]>> So, my mother always tell me that this is not important. Don't do strange things. Okay. But, 5 years ago, what happened? A tube bringing water collapsed from the third floor and here was pouring raining. The water in contact of the wood of the parquet blows up. Underneath there was the original floor and was not spoiled. And I have to say thank you to the person who has caused all the damage.

[00:07:25]>> damage. So, it is very nice to see the original floor. To have a better idea, if you look up, you can see the water.

[00:07:32]Okay, to tell the truth, I don't want to to to restore it because if I restore it You lose the story.

[00:07:37]>> I lose the story.

[00:07:39]Okay. So, it's it's it's very it looks strange. Okay, because it's normal to say to put the tidy. Okay, but I'll say the same. But if I put tidy like this child miss the story. And the story is part of the story of the family.

[00:07:54]Even if it's not a nice story Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But so that's the difference between a like a museum house and a house that a family that >> [clears throat] >> lived in. That you remember your stories. Exactly.

[00:08:07]>> Here we are in the bigger room that all the quite important paintings that has been collected by the treasure of the Pope. Costanzo Patrizi was the treasure of Paul V.

[00:08:16]>> Borghese. In 80 years has collected something like 240 paintings. We had a Caravaggio that has been sold by my grandfather. Was the Emmaus Supper. This is all the fresco by Raffaello Vanni. Is the artist that the family brought him from Siena to Rome because the palace when it has been bought it was needed to be decorated. And all facts related to Rome when it was Republic. The other painting we we have Lorenzo di Credi, Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto. So quite very important paintings I think.

[00:09:10]Thank you for letting me in. Okay. Thank you very much.

[00:09:20]>> You know, we're just leaving the Palazzo Patrizi having talked to the Marquis Corso Patrizi.

[00:09:27]Right around the corner is the Pantheon and I don't know that I can pass up the opportunity to look at that. So should we have a little look at that?

[00:09:48]>> [music] >> Gosh, we just [music] came from the Palazzo Patrizi, which is literally down that road. And here we're looking at this ancient obelisk in Rome. You can see the top of there and in the family crest. This is the Chigi family. So it's like from one family on the Patrizi to another is the Chigi. You can see um it's a papal family. And just right in front of us is the Pantheon. And everybody is here to see the Pantheon.

[00:10:34]Everybody knows about the Pantheon. I don't think anybody knows about the Patrizi or cares about the Chigi too much. There's a whole story of Rome that people aren't aware of.

[00:10:43]Also, when you read the Pantheon, it says, "Marcus Agrippa, the son of Lucius, who was consul for the third time, made this." And actually, does anybody really think about it cuz it's not actually the Pantheon that Marcus Agrippa built. They just reused the lettering. So that was done by Hadrian or perhaps Trajan, we're not sure. But certainly they reused that inscription there. So this is got to be one of the most famous temples of all and so important, isn't it? I was raised in Vicenza, and this is where Palladio got his notion of Villa La Rotonda from.

[00:11:21]That whole notion of having just a normal pediment with a huge dome inside.

[00:11:27]Okay, so here on the side of the Pantheon, so you can see where the, you know, this huge porch links to that enormous dome behind it. This is still today the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. The other thing is when you walk down here, you can see that, you know, the original floor level going down. Rome is a whole series of layers that we have to dig through to get through various parts of time. I have one more thing I can't help wanting to share with you. And if you walk down about 100 m from the Pantheon, everybody is there at the Pantheon, is this gem here that I'm showing you. It's actually Rome's first public bath complex, and it was erected by the same man who erected the very first Pantheon. It's Marcus Agrippa, whose name we just saw. Then you can see, look, it's a bath complex that wraps all the way around, and it has this architecture which is going to be so important to the Pantheon built under Hadrian. It's the way it's just totally unknown, and, you know, off the beaten track here that I really love it.

[00:12:36]I've eaten here, um and and I kind of know the restaurant owner, and I I love the fact that he can't open his shutter cuz this 2,000-year-old, literally, bath complex is in the way.

[00:12:51]It's fabulous.

[00:12:54]Hope you enjoyed that video.