| The historical core of the constructions
was probably built when the owners were the Gandolfi. It is mentioned
for the first time in a document of the year 1244, where it is
stated that the brothers Simone and Paolo de Candulphis owned
a Palace and a Curia. When this centre belonged to the Holy See
was radically transformed. Over the ruins, on the rock, it was
built a palace on the design of Carlo Maderna and later of B.
Breccioli and D. Castelli.
Thi building has been widened and restored several times by
the popes: Alexander VII (1655-1667) who was the first pope
to live in the palace; he ordered the construction of the main
façade and of the western wing; Benedict XIV (1740-1758)
ordered the decoration of the main gallery with Colli Albani’s
panoramas (Bernini’s work) painted by Pier Leone Ghezzi;
Clemens XIV (1769-1774); and Pius XI (1922-1939) reconstructed
it almost completely, leaving only the façade unchanged.
Some rooms in its interior are decorated with precious frescos,
among which: the Room of the Swiss Guards, of the Palafreniers,
of the Throne and of the Papal Chapel with frescos painted by
Zuccari. In the palace there is the Vatican Observatory built
in 1936 and founded by Gregorio XIII (1572-1585), which once
was one of the most important observatory in Europe but now
the lens because of the high luminosity in the area, have been
transferred in the USA.
The Palace’s gardens are really beautiful and they are
the result of widening works of the original gardens designed
by Bernini. They extend over the ruins of Domitian’s villa,
of which it is still possible to see some nymphaea, a little
theatre, three water tanks and a series of great terraces to
level the ground, among which a huge more than one-hundred-meter-long
crypto-portico with vaults decorated with lacunars and stuccoworks.
Near one of the villa’s exits there is an equestrian statue
probably representing Domitian, which has been found right in
this place.
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