Valentini Palace, home to the headquarters of the Province of Rome since 1873, is located in the heart of Rome, on Via IV Novembre, 119/A, a stone’s throw away from Piazza Venezia. The building was constructed in the sixteenth century on the orders of Cardinal Michele Bonelli, whose great uncle was Pope Pius V. It was part of a major regeneration plan for the area around the Imperial Forum. This stage of the construction was led by friar Domenico Paganelli, who created the building’s trapezoidal form, with the part facing piazza SS. Apostoli enclosed by an elegant facade. The building was then restructured and enlarged in 17th century, on the orders of Cardinal Carlo Bonelli and Michele Ferdinando Bonelli.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Palace was rented out to illustrious personalities of the time. These included Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli, who stayed there between 1705 and 1713. He turned the Palace into the most splendid theatre of the age and invited many musicians to stay as long term guests including G.F. Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti and Arcangelo Corelli. In 1752 the building was bought by Cardinal Giuseppe Spinelli, the nephew of Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali and executor of his estate. Spinelli was responsible for commissioning the sophisticated painted wall decorations to be found on the Palace’s main floor and also located the large Imperiali library on the ground floor. Comprising over 24,000 volumes, the library was open to the public and visited by illustrious scholars such as Giovanni Gioacchino Winckelmann.
In 1827, the building was bought by the banker Vincenzo Valentini, Consol General to the Prussian royal family, who used it as his residence. He completed the works on the side of the building facing Trajan’s Column, carried out by the architects Filippo Navone and Giovanni Battista Benedetti. Then between 1861 and 1865, Valentini’s son, Gioacchino,  commissioned two new structures, designed by architect Luigi Gabet, to complete the side of the Palace situated along Via di S. Eufemia.
The opposite facade, running along Via de’ Fornari and Vicolo di San Bernardo, was completed between 1873 and 1876. This was also designed by Gabet, this time on the orders of the Committee of the Province of Rome, which bought the property in 1873 to use as its headquarters.
This Provincial seat contains an artistic heritage that includes the statue of Ulysses byUgo Attardi, the collection of paintings and ancient relics belonging to the banker Valentini as well as more recent works, such as Sandro Chia’s Enea and Anchise and Europa, made to celebrate the 135th anniversary of the founding of the Province of Rome, positioned in the Valentini Palace entrance hall.
In recent years the building has been the subject of a major restoration and renovation programme to better exploit its treasures. As a result, the ancient statues of Aphrodite and Arianna, Marco Aurelio, Caracalla and Pertinace – restored two years ago – have been re-located. They were moved from the Palace’’s courtyard to the colonnade, making conservation and preservation easier as the statues are no longer exposed to the elements.
What’s more, a large scale archaeological dig undertaken in the building’s underground floors has revealed a residential district, made up of Roman houses (domus) with richly decorated walls dating back to the late 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The houses belonged to eminent members of high society, with walls covered in ornate slabs of polychrome marble and mosaic floors designed with complex patterns. There are also two large sculptures of toga-wearing figures dating back to the 2nd century AD.

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