Palazzo Borghese

Palazzo Borghese is a palace in Rome, Italy, the main seat of the Borghese family in. It was nicknamed il Cembalo ("the harpsichord") due to its unusual trapezoidal groundplan; its narrowest facade faces the River Tiber. The entrance at the opposite end of the building, the "keyboard" of the cembalo, faces onto the Fontanella di Borghese, with another in a great flanking facade to the Piazza Borghese that is extended by a slightly angled facade leading down Via Borghese towards the river. Both these entrances lead into a large courtyard on one side of which is a two level open arcade, with paired Doric and Ionic columns, that frames the garden beyond.

Overview:
The main façades have three stories with two mezzanines inserted between them and the two majestic portals are flanked by columns and a balcony. Through the portal on the Piazza Fontanella Borghese, a view across the courtyard is centred on one of the wall fountains in the garden beyond.

The edifice has a magnificent inner courtyard, surrounded by ninety six granite columns and decorated with statues, and a nympheum and other features, as well as an enclosed garden with three niche wall-fountains built to designs by Johann Paul Schor and finished by Rainaldi for Prince Giovan Battista Borghese in 1673. The court has been described as "one of the most spectacular existing, not only in Rome".

The façade towards the Piazza Fontanella Borghese faces another Borghese palace, rebuilt in the 16th century by Scipio Borghese to house the lesser members of the family, the stables and the servants. Palazzo Borghese was the original seat of the family's art collection, with works by Raphael, Titian and many others, transferred in 1891 to the Galleria Borghese in Villa Borghese. The balcony scene in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet was filmed here.