Palazzo Koch is a

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

palace on Via Nazionale in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy and the current head office of the nation's central bank, the

Banca d'Italia The Bank of Italy (Italian: ''Banca d'Italia'', informally referred to as ''Bankitalia''), (), is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. It is located in Palazzo Koch, via Nazionale, Rome. The bank's curre ...

. It is named after its designer, the architect

Gaetano Koch Gaetano Koch (9 January 1849 – 14 May 1910) was an Italian architect. Koch was born in Rome, where he made his name with several major works – Palazzo Koch, seat of the Banca d'Italia, and the two porticoed palazzi which form Piazza dell ...

, and was built from 1888 to 1892.

Description

The building measures 109 meters by 60 meters and rises up to 37 meters in height. The main façade is made of travertine marble and has features of the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders. Of the five floors, two are below ground. These still have windows from a moat (8 meters wide, 5 meters deep) that surrounds three sides of the building. There are two symmetrical main entrances on Via Nazionale, but only one of them is presently in use. With later additions, also used by the central bank, Palazzo Koch occupies an entire city block. It currently houses representative rooms used by the Banca d'Italia for official events, the top management, central administration, the

Paolo Baffi Paolo Baffi (5 August 1911 – 4 August 1989) was an Italian academic, banker, and economist. He was the Governor of Bank of Italy from 1975 to 1979. Biography He was born at Broni. He became governor of the Bank of Italy in 1975, succeeding Gui ...

Library and the Money Museum. The building is laid out around two interior courtyards. The Court of Honour (the western of the two courtyards) also features the three classical orders on its facades. A niche contains a bust of the building's architect. An archway towards the adjacent building which formerly housed the banknote printing facility faces a fountain topped by a statue of

Antinous Antinous, also called Antinoös, (; grc-gre, Ἀντίνοος; 27 November – before 30 October 130) was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and probable lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Following his premature death before his ...

made during the reign of

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

. The wing between the two courtyards contains the ''Sala della Lupa'', with a copy of the

Capitoline Wolf The Capitoline Wolf (Italian: ''Lupa Capitolina'') is a bronze sculpture depicting a scene from the legend of the founding of Rome. The sculpture shows a she-wolf suckling the mythical twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. According to the ...

, which gives access to the main stairway, the ''Scalone D'Onore''. This more than 3-meter-wide stairway extends up to the top floor without any central supports. At its foot are two 3rd-century sarcophagi. The first ''piano nobile'' (first upper floor) features chandeliers made from Murano glass, marble flooring and doorways and silk tapestries on the wall. The public rooms also house numerous works of art, from statues, European paintings (16th-19th centuries) as well as Oriental pieces such as Chinese lions (Han and Wei dynasties), Cambodian Buddha heads and Indian and Persian artifacts. Located in the center of the façade towards Via Nazionale is the ''Salone dei Partecipanti'' (shareholders' room). This hall, over 300 square-meters in size, is the scene of the meeting of the Banca d'Italia's shareholders and of the Governor's speech, each year in late May.

References

External links

Koch Koch Houses completed in 1892 Bank of Italy Rome R. I Monti {{Italy-palace-stub