L'Appartamento del Cardinale Prospero Colonna

Cardinal Prospero Colonna's apartment, located in Palazzo Sciarra Colonna in Rome, is a significant example of 18th-century architecture and decoration. The Cardinal commissioned Luigi Vanvitelli to renovate the main rooms, giving them an elegant and refined style.
The Library is an elongated space with wooden shelves divided by pilasters with gilded capitals, designed to house the Cardinal's book collection. The room is adorned with large mirrors, doors decorated with floral motifs, and low cabinets for additional volumes.
The Mirror Cabinet, smaller in size, features a low-vaulted ceiling with allegories painted by Stefano Pozzi. The walls are decorated with Delft tiles and ornate pilasters, while the six doors combine mirrors and Chinese-style paintings. The floor is made of original Neapolitan majolica tiles.
These rooms reflect the Rococo style of the 18th century, with elaborate details and a harmony between functionality and decoration. The apartment can currently be visited through guided tours organized by the Museo del Corso, offering the opportunity to discover this historical and artistic testimony.

If the visit to the collection on the main floor didn't excite you (it's difficult, it's magnificent...but the rooms are hampered by insufficient lighting, designed to protect the works), a visit to the so-called "Cardinal's Apartment" on the second floor will certainly delight you. You'll have already had a taste of it by visiting the so-called "Reception Hall" and the adjacent "Alcove," created with restored wooden furnishings in the typical Rococo style that make these rooms particularly evocative. In reality, above Cardinal Prospero's apartment, you can only visit a couple of rooms (the Library and the Cabinet of Mirrors) and only on the first weekend of each month, as the offices of the Fondazione Roma, the owner of these treasures, are located here, but I assure you, they are a marvel.
The Library of Prospero Colonna di Sciarra is the centerpiece of the renovated residence and, like the adjacent Cabinet, still retains its 18th-century Rococo-style decor, created by a young but promising Luigi Vanvitelli before he began working on the Royal Palace of Caserta, his most famous work. The room is rectangular in shape, but thanks to four large, rounded niches at the corners, it appears much softer and more welcoming. There are five mirrored doors with stylized flowers painted on the lower portions, and several open bookcases alternating with wooden shelves that once held books, separated by 12 pilasters, with opening doors covered in mirrors and gilded Doric capitals. Below the shelves are low cabinets for storing books, and above the doors are depictions of the zodiac signs, while the main walls are adorned with two large mirrors. The wonder continues as you enter a small corridor leading to the Cabinet of Mirrors (a small room measuring 5 meters on each side), which was created from a room in the 17th-century apartment, along with the passageway to the library and the hallway to the cardinal's bedroom. The Neapolitan majolica floor is striking, original and most likely a survivor from the renovations. The ceiling has a low vault with an allegory of cherubs harvesting grapes, painted on mirror by the painter Stefano Pozzi, and Delft tile ribs, which also frame the walls and pilasters. This small room features six panels decorated with mirrors on the upper section and Chinese-style paintings below (these are important examples of the so-called "Chinoiserie," decorations that are somewhat of a counterpart to the grotesques in the Domus Aurea—Editor's note). The scenes with cupids are beautiful, but unfortunately the views of ancient Rome are in very poor condition and can barely be seen. It's believed the library was also designed by Vanvitelli, but there's no certainty about the small room, as they are two different spaces in style and layout. Despite the limited space visited (plus a selection of works from the collection on the main floor), it's an exciting visit that I recommend to everyone. Need some useful info? Like and check out my other reviews of Rome and beyond.