Turning to the hill Palazzo Farnese stands on, you can see two flights of stairs and a large square below one of the most impressive buildings that has ever been built in Italy. Isolated but, at the same time, harmoniously integrated with the surrounding area, visually connected to the town and dominant over it, the Palace is framed by the Via Diretta which widens as it leads into the square in front of the main facade. The building was commissioned, in the 1520s, by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III. Designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Baldassare Peruzzi, it was conceived as a fortress of pentagonal shape, with scarp walls, huge corner bastions and a moat. Its construction was interrupted around 1534 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese’s appointment as Pope. The resumption of work took place about twenty years later thanks to the eldest grandson of Pope Paul III, who was also Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. His intention was to make his grandfather’s fortress a sumptuous and magnificent residence, entrusting the design to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. In 1573, the year of the architect’s death, the building, considered his masterpiece, was nearly complete. Respecting the pentagonal base, the interior spaces are spread over five floors around a circular courtyard. The best painters of the day worked inside the sumptuous residence and, the themes of the frescoes were inspired by the scholar, Annibal Caro.

Opening times
tue.-sun. 8.30 am – 7.30 pm. Ticket office closes at 6.45 pm.
Gardens opening times: only working days at 10.00, 11.00, 12.00 am and 3.00 pm; from march 15 to october 31 at 4.00 pm; from april 15 to october 15 at 5.00 pm.
Closed: monday, january 1, may 1, december 25.
Tickets: full ticket € 5,00, reduced € 2,50, except for the facilities available on the web site of MiBACT. Free admission for all the first Sunday of each month.

Palazzo Farnese
Piazza Farnese, 1
01032 Caprarola (Vt), Italy
tel. +39 0761 646052