About This Location
This is a mobile audio guide. A map in the app helps with navigation, and the audio starts automatically when GPS shows arrival at each spot. Keep the phone handy and enjoy the walk at a comfortable pace. Now the tour begins in one of Rome’s most elegant small squares. Piazza Farnese sits in the Regola district, shaped by ambition in the 1500s. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese - later Pope Paul III - bought and cleared older houses here to create a fitting setting for his family palace. Work on the project began in 1514, paused after the Sack of Rome in 1527, and continued when Farnese became pope, with Michelangelo later taking charge of key parts of the design. The giant building facing the square is Palazzo Farnese, a landmark of High Renaissance architecture. It began under Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, then passed through famous hands including Michelangelo, Vignola, and Giacomo della Porta. Inside, the Farnese Gallery became celebrated for Annibale Carracci’s fresco cycle The Loves of the Gods. Today the palace serves as the French Embassy in Italy. In the middle, the two matching fountains give the square its balance. Their granite basins are traditionally linked to the ancient Baths of Caracalla, later reused as showpieces for the Farnese setting. The fountains were finally turned into working water features in 1626, in a design attributed to Girolamo Rainaldi, with the Farnese lily and coat of arms as a signature detail. The northern fountain - the Fontana Settentrionale - is the one closer to Santa Brigida and is slightly smaller and more neatly preserved. On the side of the square is the Church of Santa Brigida, dedicated to St Bridget of Sweden and known as Sweden’s national church in Rome. A church was established here in 1513, and the façade seen today comes from an early 1700s rebuild, with figures of Bridget and her daughter Catherine above the entrance. Also on Piazza Farnese is Palazzo del Gallo di Roccagiovine, also known as Palazzo Fusconi-Pighini, at number 44. It is a Renaissance palace built in the 1500s, later expanded in the early 1700s with an impressive staircase added by Alessandro Specchi. It still hosts offices today, including the Embassy of Cyprus.