Rome: Discovering Masters and Mysteries, Half Day Private Tour

Meeting point in front the hotel

Galleria Spada

Built by Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro on pre-existing buildings owned by the family, it was completed in the Jubilee of 1550. On the first floor of the Palace, in a seventeenth-century wing, is the Spada Gallery which, within four rooms, houses a famous collection of baroque paintings, created during the seventeenth century by cardinals Bernardino and Fabrizio Spada. The finesse of the collection, which is still presented as a 17th century picture gallery, gives this place a unique charm, accentuated by a characteristic "minor" and reserved dimension. In richly decorated rooms still furnished with important examples of Baroque furniture, in the Gallery you can admire masterpieces by Guido Reni and Guercino, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Titian, Parmigianino and Jan Brueghel, as well as a precious selection of the international protagonists of Caravaggio's painting, such as Valentin de Boulogne, Trophime Bigot, Pieter Van Laer and Hendrick Van Somer.

Founded in the 7th century on the remains of a temple, probably dedicated to Minerva Chalcidica, the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva was rebuilt in Gothic style in the 13th century. During the Renaissance the façade was rearranged and substantial internal work was carried out. On the right side of the facade, there are some plaques commemorating the Tiber floods from 1598 to 1870. The interior is divided into three naves, with cross vaults resting on pillars, whose marble covering and pictorial ornamentation are due to the restoration carried out in 1850, which deprived the monument of its original appearance. In the right transept, there is the Carafa Chapel with rich fresco decoration, the work of Filippino Lippi (1488-93), which culminates above the altar with the Annunciation, in which the commissioner of the chapel, Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, is also portrayed. In the presbytery, there is the statue of the risen Christ, a work by Michelangelo.