Palazzo Pamphilj (or del Collegio Nazareno) is a historical palace in the city of Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome, in the Roman Castles area.
The palace was built between 1708 and 1717 by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj to replace some country houses dating back to the second half of the 17th century located at the top of the trident of Albano, a new urban expansion of the city conceived in the mid-17th century by Cardinal Fabrizio Savelli, commendatory abbot of the church of San Paolo. The palace became the property of the Piarist fathers of Rome's Nazarene College in 1764. It was used as a summer residence for the college's students until 1944, when it was requisitioned for use as a shelter for 52 war-displaced families.
It is currently a private property and is in total disrepair and neglect, despite being cited as an illustrative example of a patrician building in the Alban Hills and an 18th-century reconstruction site in a detailed study by Marco Silvestri and Enzo D'Ambrosio for the Accademia degli Incolti in 1988.
History
The "trident" and early 17th century urbanization
The realization of the trident of Albano as a set of three straight roads converging at a single point was promoted by Cardinal Paolo Savelli, commendatory abbot of St. Paul's Abbey, taking advantage of the lands owned by the abbey. As early as 1282, Cardinal Giacomo Savelli, since 1285 Pope Honorius IV, had built the abbey complex of St. Paul's, endowing it with substantial properties in the Albanese territory and around Lake Albano (such as the picturesque hermitage of Sant'Angelo in Lacu). The trident of roads was articulated as an urbanistic expansion of the city, hitherto restricted horizontally along the route of the decayed Via Appia Antica, which grafted onto today's Corso Alcide de Gasperi and developed with three roads that connected the strategic points of the city to the Abbey of St. Paul: the current Via Leonardo Murialdo (the "third street" of the Gregorian cadastre) with the cathedral basilica of San Pancrazio, the current Via San Gaspare del Bufalo (the "second street" of the Gregorian cadastre) with the shrine of Santa Maria della Rotonda, and the current Via Aurelio Saffi (the "first street" of the Gregorian cadastre) with the Via Appia and, slightly wrong-footing it, with Palazzo Savelli. The first building erected in the new expansion (the "Borgo Nuovo," today's Borgo San Paolo) was a country house built by Cardinal Vincenzo Maculani, a Dominican military engineer in papal service, between 1657 and 1662. The annual rent he had to pay to the Abbey of San Paolo, owner of the land, amounted to two pounds of wax (about 600 grams). Next to this palace, built at the corner of the square and today's Via Murialdo and Via San Gaspare del Bufalo, on the downstream side rose the country house of the Bottini marquises.
Later, the "trident" was occupied by new aristocratic palaces: Rospigliosi palace, built in 1667 opposite the Maculani casino (today it houses the "Leonardo Murialdo" paritarian institute and the Giuseppini fathers' college) and the Nuñex casino on Piazza San Paolo, the palace of Cardinal Bernardino Giraud (1721-1782) and the neoclassical Croci palace on today's Via Aurelio Saffi.
18th century: the Pamphilj
On Dec. 6, 1707, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj, a patron, librettist and librarian of the Vatican Library, sent the architect Filippo Leti to Albano to make an estimate of the value of the Maculani casino and also of the adjacent Bottini casino, as he was intent on purchasing them to build a new palace.
The Maculani casino, a two-story building with a courtyard, chapel, stable and dining room, was in a very bad state, unfinished and far too rustic, with the putlog holes still visible.
The adjacent Bottini casino, on the other hand, though much smaller, was more finished, and still counted two floors with courtyard, dinette, stable and chapel.
The final estimation was 3000 pontifical scudi for the Maculani casino and 1500 for the Bottini casino: the purchase of the two properties was sealed in Rome, at the Doria Pamphilj palace, on January 30 and 31, 1708. Later, Cardinal Pamphilj also purchased an undivided property of the extent of 113 square meters, belonging to Maddalena Ubaldi, located along today's Via Murialdo, bordering his new properties: the purchase was concluded on March 26, 1708.
The construction of the palace was begun by the architect Simone Costanzi, who, however, died in the course of the work in 1709, so the construction was followed by Filippo Leti under the supervision of master builder De Rossi.