Rarified and unapologetically decadent, Rome’s Palazzo Rondinini is a Baroque palace fit for a king – but designed for an art-loving marquis.

The Via del Corso spread was designed by architects Gabriele Valvassori and Alessandro Dori and completed in 1764 for Marquis Giuseppe Rondinini,  a high-ranking noble and voracious art collector. He owned over two hundred sculptures, paintings and artifacts – most famously, Michaelangelo’s La Pietà, which was hidden inside the palazzo for decades in a secret niche.

From the outset, the building was envisaged as ‘a museum residence, in the name of an ideal of life dedicated to art,’ says listing agent Vincenzo Lupattelli of Italy Sotheby’s International, who is selling the property with its price upon application.

Its ornately decorated Baroque interior spans 7,167 sq m, starting with a grand entrance hall that leads into a complex system of vaults that form the porch for the Court of Honour – an open-air courtyard decorated with mythical bas-reliefs and a fountain with nymphs. There’s also a giant clock, supported by travertine angels, which sits above the glass loggia.

Back inside, a colossal staircase connects the ground floor to the main level, where rooms have marble inlay floors and dazzling frescoed ceilings depicting Roman and Greek mythological scenes, as well as epic architectural friezes. The colours and the decorative detail are incredible, having been well preserved through the centuries.

Take a closer look at the Rome property in the gallery.

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