One of the most iconic buildings of all Rome is, no doubts, the Venice Palace. It is located in the city centre of Rome, just few steps far from the Colosseum, and it is a building that is about 600 years old. Moreover it is linked, in particular, to two men: Peter Barbo, aka Pope Paul II, and Mussolini.

The latter is easy to remember and especially to understand what was his relationship with this building. Just see the pictures and the old videos where we see Mussolini coming out from that little balcony that today is flanked by two flags. A balcony added, however, only in the three centuries ago. Curious to think how the same name, the Venice Palace (Palazzo Venezia in Italian), is not original but derives from the use and the destination of this building since the XVI century, when it became the embassy of the Venetian Republic. The genesis of the Venice Palace, in fact, dates back to the first half of the XV century when the powerful cardinal Pietro Barbo, a member of a noble family from Venice decided to have a dwelling worthy of his lineage. The facility itself is worthy of note, because it testifies, in architecture, the critical step that there will be between the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The battlements on top are a clear medieval element, but the structure, for example, that rotates around a central courtyard, within the peristyle (that means surrounded on four sides by columns), betrays some of the elements that were going to become typical of the roman Renaissance, and not only. It is not a case, although the paternity of the building is still debated, that probably the architect who built the Venice Palace was Leon Battista Alberti.

However Pietro Barbo, when he arrived in Rome in the mid of the XV century, initially commissioned this palace. But then, a few years later, and following his election to the pontificate, (which took place in 1464), he decided to enlarge and embellish the building. The tower, already originally present, was raised, as well as the palace itself, which was elongated in the direction of Via del Corso and further embellished. It is certain that the palace was a treasure trove of mirabilia, objects of art and not only a man of noble origins as Pietro Barbo almost had to own, to confirm her high lineage. Being an antique dealer, and a great collector, Pope Paul II, according to the sources, using always his personal wealth and not that of the Church, was able to collect hundreds of pieces: statues and ancient reliefs, cameos, and jewels of various shapes and origin. A treasure that the pope really loved, even doing the follies of economic though to grab something. He was a true lover of art and beauty, a humanist who wanted, at all costs, and admire what the human being is able to produce in the course of several centuries. It is a pity that Sixtus IV, at the end of the XV century, will take possession of this extraordinary collection, dismembered it completely. So how is it a sin to know how from the original housing complex erected by the pontiff are remained just few elements. Suffice it to say that, following the completion of the Altare della Patria (the italian National Memorial), many of the elements were, if not completely destroyed, definitely moved on. In a different context, in short, compared to what it really was 600 years ago...