A Five Year Project Reaches Its Final StageScaffolding has come down for the last time at Palazzo Farnese in Rome, marking the end of a five-year restoration of the building’s facades and roofs. The project, carried out jointly by the French Embassy in Italy and the École française de Rome, working alongside the Soprintendenza Speciale per l’Archeologia, le Belle Arti e i Paesaggi di Roma, began in 2021 and has just been completed, 437 years after the palace’s construction was finished in the sixteenth century.Palazzo Farnese has housed the French Embassy in Italy since 1874 and the École française de Rome since 1875, making its upkeep a shared responsibility between the two French institutions and Italian heritage authorities. The scaffolding’s removal along the Tiber-facing side exposed the full extent of the restoration’s results, revealing surfaces that had accumulated grime and wear from centuries of exposure. Four Renaissance Architects, One Building What makes the restoration particularly delicate is the building’s design history. Palazzo Farnese wasn’t the work of a single architect but of four of the most significant figures in Italian Renaissance and early Baroque architecture, each taking over the project across several decades. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger began work on the main facade in 1513, while the palace was already occupied by its owner, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. After Sangallo’s death in 1546, Michelangelo took over, adding the building’s cornice, altering the main facade’s large central window, and completing the second floor of the interior courtyard. From 1550, Vignola contributed to the facade facing Via del Mascherone. Finally, in 1573, Giacomo della Porta took charge of the rear wing, completing the Tiber-facing facade in 1589. Restoring a building shaped by four distinct architectural sensibilities over the better part of a century required unusual care to preserve each contributor’s original choices rather than flattening them into a single uniform finish. Four Phases, Four Facades The restoration unfolded in four sequential phases, each focused on a different side of the building: the facade and roof facing Via dei Farnesi; the facade and roof facing Via del Mascherone; maintenance of the main facade on Piazza Farnese along with roof restoration; and finally the garden wall and roof on the Tiber side, including window frame renewal. The work followed Italian principles for restoring historic monuments, which treat original material as a primary source of information to be preserved rather than replaced. That approach shaped choices ranging from insulating the attic with cork to reusing existing Roman roof tiles sourced regionally, alongside new wooden window frames designed for better thermal performance. The final phase, focused on the garden wall along the Tiber, proved especially revealing. Careful survey and conservation work restored legibility to a structural element bearing extensive archaeological traces of the site’s history, including traces of old carriage doors, now-sealed windows and doorways, and centuries of modern reinforcements and repairs. Restorers also recovered the coat of arms of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, positioned to correspond with Pope Paul III’s own coat of arms on the Piazza Farnese side, restoring its visibility on the facade. What the Cleaning Revealed Across all four phases, work centered on cleaning and consolidating the masonry, along with restoring the structure and the historic roof tiles. Carpentry throughout the building was replaced or refurbished in continuity with restoration work carried out in the 2000s on the Piazza Farnese and Via Giulia facades, including a reconstruction of the original design of a painted window at the corner of the Piazza Farnese facade. Restorers treated the travertine and brickwork in parallel with the roof retiling. The cleaning uncovered material of exceptional quality in excellent condition. All masonry elements were preserved in place, while decorative details and the interplay of color across the facades, travertine stone, ochre brick and red brick, regained their original visual clarity. The project also generated a substantial body of scientific data, gathered through core sampling and material analysis, which researchers expect to feed into further study of the building’s construction techniques and conservation history. A Binational Effort With Deep Roots The restoration traces its origins to 2017, when the French Embassy and the École française de Rome began developing the project in dialogue with local authorities. The commissioning body was represented by the Service des Travaux et Bâtiments Français en Italie (STBI), led by Matthieu Bourez, while direction of the works was entrusted to the agency of Pierre-Antoine Gatier, chief architect for French historic monuments. A scientific committee of French and Italian experts met throughout the process, from the 2018 design phase through completion in June 2026, with the Soprintendenza Speciale providing ongoing scientific oversight. French Ambassador Anne-Marie Descôtes noted that France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Higher Education and Research together allocated €8.5 million covering the full cost of the restoration, describing the sustained commitment to the palace’s upkeep as a reflection of shared values between France and Italy. Brigitte Marin, director of the École française de Rome, said the project’s conclusion opens a new phase centered on analyzing the extensive data collected during the work, part of the École’s long tradition of studying the building that has housed it for more than a century and a half. Daniela Porro, Special Superintendent for Rome, credited the restoration’s success to close collaboration between French and Italian institutions and to an international scientific committee, calling the four architects behind the original facades an unmatched combination of talent spanning the Renaissance into the Baroque. More Than a Historic Facade The restoration followed an earlier campaign focused on the Piazza Farnese-facing side, completed for the 150th anniversary of France’s presence at the palace during the 2025 Jubilee, itself building on restoration work carried out for the Jubilee of 2000. Beyond its historical value, Palazzo Farnese remains a working building today, a diplomatic seat, a research institution, and a space that opens its doors to artists, scholars and the public. That ongoing use, restorers noted, is precisely why five years of careful, phased work mattered: not just to recover a Renaissance monument, but to keep it functioning as one.

Scaffolding has come down for the last time at Palazzo Farnese in Rome, marking the end of a five-year restoration of the building’s facades and roofs. The project, carried out jointly by the French Embassy in Italy and the École française de Rome, working alongside the Soprintendenza Speciale per l’Archeologia, le Belle Arti e i Paesaggi di Roma, began in 2021 and has just been completed, 437 years after the palace’s construction was finished in the sixteenth century. Palazzo Farnese has housed the French Embassy in Italy since 1874 and the École française de Rome since 1875, making its upkeep a shared responsibility between the two French institutions and Italian heritage authorities. The scaffolding’s removal along the Tiber-facing side exposed the full extent of the restoration’s results, revealing surfaces that had accumulated grime and wear from centuries of exposure. Four Renaissance Architects, One Building What makes the restoration particularly delicate is the building’s design history. Palazzo Farnese wasn’t the work of a single architect but of four of the most significant figures in Italian Renaissance and early Baroque architecture, each taking over the project across several decades. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger began work on the main facade in 1513, while the palace was already occupied by its owner, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. After Sangallo’s death in 1546, Michelangelo took over, adding the building’s cornice, altering the main facade’s large central window, and completing the second floor of the interior courtyard. From 1550, Vignola contributed to the facade facing Via del Mascherone. Finally, in 1573, Giacomo della Porta took charge of the rear wing, completing the Tiber-facing facade in 1589.
Restoring a building shaped by four distinct architectural sensibilities over the better part of a century required unusual care to preserve each contributor’s original choices rather than flattening them into a single uniform finish. Four Phases, Four Facades The restoration unfolded in four sequential phases, each focused on a different side of the building: the facade and roof facing Via dei Farnesi; the facade and roof facing Via del Mascherone; maintenance of the main facade on Piazza Farnese along with roof restoration; and finally the garden wall and roof on the Tiber side, including window frame renewal. The work followed Italian principles for restoring historic monuments, which treat original material as a primary source of information to be preserved rather than replaced. That approach shaped choices ranging from insulating the attic with cork to reusing existing Roman roof tiles sourced regionally, alongside new wooden window frames designed for better thermal performance. The final phase, focused on the garden wall along the Tiber, proved especially revealing. Careful survey and conservation work restored legibility to a structural element bearing extensive archaeological traces of the site’s history, including traces of old carriage doors, now-sealed windows and doorways, and centuries of modern reinforcements and repairs. Restorers also recovered the coat of arms of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, positioned to correspond with Pope Paul III’s own coat of arms on the Piazza Farnese side, restoring its visibility on the facade. What the Cleaning Revealed Across all four phases, work centered on cleaning and consolidating the masonry, along with restoring the structure and the historic roof tiles. Carpentry throughout the building was replaced or refurbished in continuity with restoration work carried out in the 2000s on the Piazza Farnese and Via Giulia facades, including a reconstruction of the original design of a painted window at the corner of the Piazza Farnese facade. Restorers treated the travertine and brickwork in parallel with the roof retiling. The cleaning uncovered material of exceptional quality in excellent condition. All masonry elements were preserved in place, while decorative details and the interplay of color across the facades, travertine stone, ochre brick and red brick, regained their original visual clarity. The project also generated a substantial body of scientific data, gathered through core sampling and material analysis, which researchers expect to feed into further study of the building’s construction techniques and conservation history. A Binational Effort With Deep Roots The restoration traces its origins to 2017, when the French Embassy and the École française de Rome began developing the project in dialogue with local authorities. The commissioning body was represented by the Service des Travaux et Bâtiments Français en Italie (STBI), led by Matthieu Bourez, while direction of the works was entrusted to the agency of Pierre-Antoine Gatier, chief architect for French historic monuments. A scientific committee of French and Italian experts met throughout the process, from the 2018 design phase through completion in June 2026, with the Soprintendenza Speciale providing ongoing scientific oversight. French Ambassador Anne-Marie Descôtes noted that France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Higher Education and Research together allocated €8.5 million covering the full cost of the restoration, describing the sustained commitment to the palace’s upkeep as a reflection of shared values between France and Italy. Brigitte Marin, director of the École française de Rome, said the project’s conclusion opens a new phase centered on analyzing the extensive data collected during the work, part of the École’s long tradition of studying the building that has housed it for more than a century and a half. Daniela Porro, Special Superintendent for Rome, credited the restoration’s success to close collaboration between French and Italian institutions and to an international scientific committee, calling the four architects behind the original facades an unmatched combination of talent spanning the Renaissance into the Baroque. More Than a Historic Facade The restoration followed an earlier campaign focused on the Piazza Farnese-facing side, completed for the 150th anniversary of France’s presence at the palace during the 2025 Jubilee, itself building on restoration work carried out for the Jubilee of 2000. Beyond its historical value, Palazzo Farnese remains a working building today, a diplomatic seat, a research institution, and a space that opens its doors to artists, scholars and the public. That ongoing use, restorers noted, is precisely why five years of careful, phased work mattered: not just to recover a Renaissance monument, but to keep it functioning as one.