The Palace, hosting at present the
seat of the Town Hall, was built in the lowest part of the town,
closing like a painted background the square linking the historical
centre with the principal street. The Cardinal Altemps began the
construction of the palace. His intention was to build a sort
of small country-house. In 1613, when the new owners were the
Borghese, the cardinal Borghese decided to end the building's
construction, even though he understood it represented a sort
of barrier to the growth of the town. Starting a new building,
however, implied a greater expenditure then ending the previous
construction.
Its position is similar to that of the palace in Monte Porzio
Catone: at the beginning of the town and in a place underlining
the hegemony of the Family. In 1616 in front of the palace was
built a fountain collecting and supplying the water coming from
la Molara. In 1582 the fountain was inserted in a splendid aedicule
in spur stone. The fountain was dismissed in 1889 when a new
fountain ‘La Fontana dell'Angelo' was realized
in the rear of the palace, and replaced by the war memorial
in 1920.
The fountain ‘dell'Angelo' at the rear of
the palace, is decorated with a bronze statue representing ‘il
Genio dell'Escavazione', built to remember the miners,
which dug the 5400-meter-long tunnel of the new waterworks.
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