Palazzo Barberini Palazzo Barberini The Palazzo Barberini () is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. It houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica. The sloping site had formerly been occupied by a garden-vineyard of the Sforza family, in which a "palazzetto" had been built in 1549. The sloping site passed from one cardinal to another during the sixteenth century, with no project fully getting off the ground. When Cardinal Alessandro Sforza met financial hardships, the still semi-urban site was purchased in 1625 by Maffeo Barberini, of the Barberini family, who became Pope Urban VIII. Three great architects
Palazzo Barberini awarded to Bernini, a young prodigy then better known as a sculptor. Borromini stayed on regardless and the two architects worked together, albeit briefly, on this project and at the Palazzo Spada. Works were completed by Bernini in 1633. After the Wars of Castro and the death of Urban VIII, the palace was confiscated by Pamphili Pope Innocent X and was only returned to the Barberini in 1653. The palazzo is disposed around a forecourt centered on Bernini's grand two-storey hall backed by an oval "salone", with an extended wing dominating the piazza, which lies on a lower level. At