Living in a Renaissance palazzo

Palazzo Chigi, Viterbo

Apr 04, 2025

Throughout Italy it is not unusual to be surrounded by affreschi of Renaissance masters: magnificent ones decorate most churches, grand public buildings and even private homes, as you can see in my post of March 10, 2024.

Here in Viterbo a local guide recently offered a tour of the privately owned Palazzo Chigi which is normally closed to the public.

How different from the enormous and majestic castles open to the public I wrote about in my previous two articles! This is a regular apartment lived in by a kind gentleman we know.

On the loggia

Several years ago, when I mentioned my interest in frescoed buildings to an acquaintance, she invited me to visit the apartment of her elderly uncle who lives in one of Viterbo’s most imposing buildings: Palazzo Chigi. Located in the very center of Viterbo, it is just around the corner from the City Hall (Palazzo dei Priori ) where large paintings of Michelangelo’s friend, Sebastiano del Piombo, can be admired. (Click on the underlined links to learn more.)

Over the centuries this austere palazzo with its imposing tower has been home to several powerful local families: the Caetani, Chigi, Montoro, Patrizi and Crescenti. For the past few generations the Egidi family has called it home and have done major restorations, including that of the palazzo’s tiny private chapel.

“The roof is so huge that it seems we are always repairing it”, confided Serena as she greeted us at the grand entrance doorway. She and various other family members live in apartments located on the main floor, il piano nobile, where the ceilings rise up to enormous heights. A guest apartment, listed on airbandb, is located on the lower level where the kitchens used to be.

Entering the portone one catches a glimpse of a beautiful fresco by Antonio del Massaro (known as Pastura). When we visited it was half hidden behind a car and a dusty Vespa.

On the upper levels frescoes greet visitors at every turn: at the top of the steep staircase, on the loggia, the doors and throughout the reception rooms. The windows of the main salone, opposite an imposing 16th century fireplace, give sunlight to the numerous house plants. On one side of this large room an early piano-like instrument called clavicembalo is covered with a plastic sheet awaiting restoration.

Zio Luciano led us into a smaller living room with walls covered in silk damask and family portraits. In one corner a 1980s music center - composed of a giradischi and a piano- show that this was the room the family used for parties.

Fresco cycle by Antonio Tempesta contrasts with the 1950s wallpaper

Pulling up a curtain with a cord reveals another room, the family chapel with a heavy chest of drawers acting as a sacristy tucked into a niche. It must have been constructed on site, since it is too large to have gone through the doorway.

The decorations in Palazzo Chigi have been the object of a university thesis and I understood why when we were ushered into another room completely covered with frescoes of gods, landscapes and hunting scenes by Antonio Tempesta.

The image of a colorful parrot which met us at eye level gave the room its name: Stanza del Pappagallo. It was a reminder that these rare birds were among the treasures being brought back from the New World by explorers at the same time the palazzo was being decorated!

Other fresco cycles by Tempesta can be found in and around Viterbo in Renaissance period buildings such as the nearby Palazzo Especo y Vera, now seat of the SYA-School Year Abroad program for American high school students which I helped to organize about 20 years ago.

Pictorial cycles based on Tempesta’s battle and hunting scenes can also be admired at Villa Lante, Palazzo Peretti-Montalto in Civita Castellana, Palazzo Giustiniani in Bassano Romano as well as Palazzo Brugiotti-Vinci in Vetralla across the street from where I am writing. Click underlined links for virtual visits and videos .

You will find more stories of real people and life in the Tuscia/Etruria area in my books which can be ordered directly from the website. They can also be found in numerous bookshops, museums, historical sites, gardens and castles in central Italy and ebay - but not amazon.

During the month of April there will be a discount (8 instead of 12 euro) for orders of multiple copies of “Etruria- travel,history,itineraries in Central Italy”, perfect for visiting guests and groups.