Strolling in Rome, you know, you can find things that are really unimaginable, elements that seem to belong to a fable or, sometimes, things that are really unusual. The beauty of Rome is also made of strange things or buildings that can surprise even a local tour guide like me. Let's go to know better one of these beauties... 

Something like this strange main entrance that is surmounted by...the mouth of a monster! We are, in fact, in front of Palazzo Zuccari, also known with an unusual nickname: House of Monsters. Why? We have to go back to the XVI century when, during the Renaissance age, a famous, smart and rich artist known by the name of Federico Zuccari wanted to build a house in Rome, on the Via Gregoriana. We are in the real city centre of Rome, just few steps from Trinità dei Monti. Federico Zuccari, in tandem with his brother Thaddeus (a painter too), beautified many of the churches and chapels of Rome, as the Basilica of Santa Sabina and the Basilica of San Marcello al Corso. What is surprising is how Federico wanted to have fun sculpting the facade of the building with this strange face, taken probably his inspiration from one of the monstrous statues of the Sacred Wood of Bomarzo, which he visited and studied.

The house was only one floor, and the rooms were painted directly from the two brothers. The famous cycle of frescoes named "Glory of the artist." Why this title? Because the master of the house wanted to make this building a point of reference for artists, a home for those who, like him, wanted to live the full atmosphere of Rome, always ready to offer new opportunities from the point of view of the art world. His heirs, however, made other choices, and the palace was sold to a private individual. It is a pity if we consider that the Zuccari lost, according to some documents, a large part of his fortune to erect, decorate, and build the building.

Little curiosity: today this sixteenth-century building hosts the Hertziana Library and its the collection coming from Enrietta Hertz, a great lover of art, who accumulated a substantial number of works of art in the course of her life. But she collected several books and texts, so much that they became the core of the modern library. Even today, this library is very exclusive, and only with special permits and for the purposes of studies opens its doors to those who want to learn and explore the world of art. Moreover we shouldn't forget how art is the main character of this small palace, art like the frescos of the ground floor painted five hundred of years ago with mythological or allegoric figures, and even with the portraits of the Zuccari brothers. But imagine how art is really the landlord of  the house, because over the centuries several masters lived or worked here: Jacques Louis David painted inside the rooms of the Zuccari Palace his famous "Giuramento degli Orazi", meanwhile Whinckelmann, who is considered the father of the modern art history, lived here during the 70's of the XVIII century. After all, perhaps, the Zuccari's dream is realized!