Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

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(left) A view of the main square from the entrance to the palace; (right) winding staircase which allowed pack animals or sedan chairs to access the Papal apartments

Hard by Albano stands Castel Gandulfo, the Popes Country house, in Summer. It stands very pleasantly, having on one side of it a Lake and Woods, and on the other, the Campagna of Rome, and the City it self in view. I slept into this Castle, but found nothing but bare walls, it being unfurnished.
Richard Lassels - The Voyage of Italy, or a Compleat Journey through Italy in ca 1668
Castel Gandolfo, the favourite summer residence of the popes for the last two hundred and fifty years, and the only portion of their property outside the Vatican walls, left untouched since the Sardinian occupation. (..) Pius IX. spent part of each summer here, before the invasion; and every afternoon saw him riding on his white mule in the old avenues or on the terraced paths above the lake, followed by his cardinals in their scarlet robes - a most picturesque and mediaeval scene.
Augustus J. C. Hare - Days near Rome - 1875
A winding ramp was first designed by Donato Bramante for Casino del Belvedere to allow Pope Julius II to reach his apartments by riding a mule and a similar more monumental staircase was designed by il Vignola for Palazzo Farnese di Caprarola.

Barberini Room: views of the Roman countryside and coats of arms of Pope Urban VIII by Simone Lagi; the image used as background for this page shows a small radiant sun, another heraldic symbol of the Pope

The place was the fortress of the Gandolfi family in the 12th century. In 1218, it passed to the Savelli, who held it for four hundred years, triumphantly defying all attempts to wrest it from them. In 1596 it was raised into a duchy for Bernardino Savelli by Sixtus V., but poverty obliged him to sell the property to the government for 150,000 scudi, an enormous sum in those days. Clement VIII., by a decree of 1604, incorporated it with the temporal domain of the Holy See. (..) It was reserved for Urban VIII. (Barberini) to adopt it as a residence, and to build the palace from designs of Carlo Maderno, Bartolomeo Breccioli, and Domenico Castelli. Urban came every year to Castel Gandolfo, and a large number of his bulls are dated from hence. The pontifical palace was enlarged by Alexander VII., and completed by Clement XIII. The interior is furnished in the simplest manner and is little worth visiting. Hare

Galleria di Alessandro VII

This village, which takes its name from the autumnal residence of the popes, is situated on a considerable edifice, and commands a noble view of the lake on one side, and of the "Campagna" on the other. The pope's palace, which in effect is a castle, was chiefly ornamented by Alexander the seventh of the Chigi family; who also made a good road from this place to Palazzuolo. It is a building of considerable size, and has in it noble apartments, furnished with that dignified simplicity which characterizes the residence of an ecclesiastical sovereign. Amongst the paintings are four moon-lights, two flower pieces, dead game and poultry, of great merit; a fine portrait of a pope, by Spagnoletto, the portrait of Bernini, a good head, painted by himself, some cartoons, the sketch of a holy family, and several dishes of old delft, painted from designs of Raphael. (..) The gardens of the papal palace at Castel Gandolfo are not very extensive, but they afford a fine view of the lake and adjoining country. An espalier of roses round the greatest part of the castle has a pleasing effect.
Ellis Cornelia Knight - Description of Latium: or, La Campagna di Roma - 1805
Knight visited the palace before it was damaged and sacked by French troops in 1798. Pope Pius VII repaired and refurbished it in 1803. During the annexation of Rome to the French Empire (1809-1814) it was poorly maintained. The Papal residence was closed in 1870 due to the fall of the Papal states. In 1929, after the Lateran Treaty, the Papal Palace together with Villa Cybo and Villa Barberini became a Pontifical Villa of the Holy See that benefit from the extraterritorial status.

Galleria Alessandro VII: view of Castel Gandolfo by Pier Leone Ghezzi

In a long gallery ornamented with landscapes in fresco, Ghezzi has introduced figures of hermits and peasants resembling different prelates of the court of Benedict the XIVth (Lambertini): this pope, who was a man of wit and learning as well as a good sovereign, delighted in caricatures, and having heard that Ghezzi had drawn in that manner the principal personages at Rome, desired to see him and his sketch book. The painter obeyed very unwillingly, as, amongst the rest, he had not spared his holiness. The pope however, was not less amused with his own portrait than with those of his subjects, and kept the book, paying Ghezzi very liberally for it, and frequently afterwards employing him. Knight
Pier Leone Ghezzi, whose frescoes and altarpieces are now all but forgotten, survives as the witty caricaturist of hundreds of contemporary Roman notables - drawn, however, in a stereotyped manner - rather than as the painter of genre scenes.
Rudolf Wittkower - Art and Architecture in Italy - 1600-1750 Penguin Books

Galleria Alessandro VII: promenade in the woods near Castel Gandolfo by Pier Leone Ghezzi

Lambertini, in possession of the book, would often shew the cardinals and prelates their resemblances; and if he perceived they were offended, he turned over the leaves, and exhibiting his own caricature, comforted them with the assurance that they were not worse treated than himself. It was to please him, that Ghezzi painted these figures in the gallery: they are not exaggerated to such a degree as to become disgusting, and are rather humorous representations of the different pursuits in which he supposes the prelates to be engaged, than distorted likenesses of their persons and features. Coarseness and vulgarity scarcely ever disgrace the works of an Italian artist. Knight

Hall of Pius XI

Pope Pius XI, the ruling pope at the time of the Lateran Treaty, ordered a general redesign and refurbishment of the Papal Palace and he linked it with other properties to allow members of his court to reside at Castel Gandolfo, where in 1934-1938 he spent several months.

Hall of Pius XI: Gobelins tapestry depicting the Flight to Egypt (see another Gobelins tapestry at Palazzo del Laterano)

Pope Pius XII spent the summer of 1939 at Castel Gandolfo. In the following year Italy joined Germany in WWII and the palace became a shelter for the locals especially after the Allies landed at Anzio in January 1944. The Allies did not bomb the palace, but several monasteries and papal colleges, e.g. that of Propaganda Fide, were hit causing more than 500 deaths. In August 1946 the Pope returned to Castel Gandolfo and spent there every summer until his death on October 9, 1958 in the palace.

Green sitting-room (Pius XI's renovation)

Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI spent in general two months every year at Castel Gandolfo. Pope Paul VI in his speech of Sunday August 13, 1972 said:
Dearest children, Your visit is very welcome to us, especially in this small courtyard which becomes a room for a meeting full of cordiality and spirituality. We are not the only ones talking. Your presence silently questions us; and it seems to us that it is asking us: «. . . and the Pope, on holiday, what does he do?".
Oh! Dearest children! we'll tell you right away: we too enjoy a little of this gift that the Lord gives us. We breathe this good air, we admire the beauty of this natural setting, we enjoy the enchantment of its light and its silence. And we also seek some refreshment for our poor strength, which is always scarce.
On Sunday August 6, 1978 he did not have strength enough to bless the crowd at noon and in the evening he passed away.

View over Rocca di Papa and Monte Cavo from the private papal apartment in the rear side of the palace

VATICAN CITY - February 28, 2013 - Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican for the last time shortly before 5 p.m. local time Thursday, but not before promising "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his successor in his final greetings to cardinals before retiring. (..) The pope boarded an Italian government helicopter for Castel Gandolfo, the traditional papal summer residence 15 miles south of Rome. The Vatican's bells chimed as the helicopter flew over Rome's skyline. The helicopter landed 17 minutes later and, after a short limousine ride, Benedict slowly made his way into the villa. Minutes later, he greeted a crowd from his residence balcony. (..) All indications are that Benedict will relish his privacy at Castel Gandolfo for the next few months, and, after that, at a private residence being constructed for him on the Vatican grounds, where Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Benedict will dedicate himself to prayer, reflection, study and writing.
Eric J. Lyman - Special for USA TODAY
Pope Francis met his predecessor Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo on March 23, 2013. The room of the private papal apartment where they met is today known as the Hall of the Two Popes.

Museum of the Papal Palace: embroidered coats of arms of Pope Paul V and of a Borghese cardinal who was also patron of the Order of the Knights of Malta

Castel Gandolfo, has not been officially used as a papal residence since Benedict XVI spent just over two months there following his Feb. 28, 2013, resignation from the See of Peter. Catholic News Agency
Pope Francis decided not to utilize the palace as his summer residence, a decision which followed that of not using the papal apartment overlooking Piazza S. Pietro. In a 2015 tweet he wrote: God loves the lowly. When we live humbly, he takes our small efforts and creates great things. The Pope's choice of name, Francis, was inspired by the Catholic Church's most ascetic saint - a man whose devotion to a life of privation and poverty is seen by many as second only to that of Jesus Christ himself. The Pope decided to turn the residence of Castel Gandolfo into a museum of papal memorabilia.

Museum of the Papal Palace: "sedia gestatoria" (a ceremonial throne on which popes were carried on shoulders) and "flabella" (fans made of white ostrich feathers) of Pope Pius IX and costumes of the Papal Noble Guard Mace-Bearer and Cape-and-Sword Waiter (in front); of the Commander of the Palatine Guard and of an Officer of the Papal Noble Guard (behind); see the costume of First Prince Assistant to the Pope

The Pope not unfrequently appears in Public; and officiates in S. Peter's on Christmass day, Easter Sunday and Corpus Christi, richly robed; but, on other occasions, when he merely assists at the Service, he is robed with more simplicity. His tiara is a triple crown emblematic of his spiritual, temporal and paternal authority. One of the two tiaras now used was presented by Napoleon to Pius VII., and is of velvet adorned with sapphirs, emeralds, rubies, pearls; and it has a large emerald on its summit surmounted by a cross enriched with diamonds. His ordinary dress is white; but his cloak, shoes and hat are red. White was the ordinary dress of the Roman Emperors but their "paludamentum" or military cloak was scarlet. When his Holiness enters the city in state his superb state-carriage, all burnished with gold, is drawn by six horses, followed by a long train on horseback, on foot and in carriages, and preceded by one of his private chaplains, seated on a white mule, and bearing in his hand a gilt staff surmounted by a cross. Uniting in his person the temporal as well as spiritual authority, the Sovereign Pontiff, when officiating in public, is attended by the Dignitaries of the Roman church and by his officers of state. (..) The mounted Body-guard of the Pope, called the Guardia Nobile, is a volunteer corps of eighty noblemen, commanded by one of the Roman Princes, and constituting the most distinguished military body in Rome. They attend the Pope on all public occasions, religious functions etc. and also on his ordinary drives.
Rev. Jeremiah Donovan - Rome Ancient and Modern and its environs - 1843

Museum of the Papal Palace: (left) coat of arms of Pope Alexander VII and costume of the Governor of the Conclave; (centre) 1846 throne of Pius IX; (right) modern throne (Pius XI's renovation)

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