Overview

Great artists contributed in the construction of Palazzo Farnese—Antonio da Sangallo was the first, having been commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Other contributors were Giacomo della Porta, and the great Michelangelo who redesigned the upper floors to make the palace taller and built the amazing cornice. The palace had already been enlarged in 1534, when Cardinal Farnese became Pope Paul III. On his death his two sons, Ranuccio and Odoardo, added to the decor inside to make the building more magnificent. When the Farnese family died in the mid-18th century, the palace fell into decline and was only saved from further neglect when it became the French embassy in 1874. The embassy still resides in the palace and recently the main façade was restored.