The Palace of Spain, in Rome, homes the Spanish embassy to the Holy SeeA journey by way of greater than 4 centuries of historical pastIt was an icon of energy for the Spanish crown and maintains its majesty guarding Piazza di Spagna
Just a few steps from the well-known steps of the Roman Piazza di Spagna, the place it is not uncommon to see rituals of the vacationer enclave, marriage proposals, there’s a place with many tales to inform. From the balcony of the Spanish embassy to the Holy See you’ll be able to see rivers of vacationers strolling alongside the well-known Roman cobblestones, the sampietrini. These and different scenes have handed for 400 years earlier than the eyes of the Spanish diplomatic illustration mission to the Vatican, the oldest embassy on the earth. In this enclave there may be not solely a cultural, administrative and institutional equipment that has been working at full capability for 4 centuries. Also its political and propaganda dimension and having been a novel spectator of nice historic occasions fill it with solemnity. Especially this 12 months that celebrates 4 centuries, which have been celebrated with numerous occasions all through 2022, a 12 months that additionally noticed the arrival of the brand new ambassador, the previous Minister of Education Isabel Celaá, the final of an inventory of as much as 155 representatives of Spain earlier than the Holy See in 400 years.
The oldest Embassy on the earth is 400 years outdated, and it’s Spanish 🇪🇸.
The diplomatic headquarters of Spain 🇪🇸 earlier than the Holy See 🇻🇦 was established in 1622 within the Monaldeschi Palace.
📷EFEhttps://t.co/s2uCickx6Q
– Embassy of Spain in Nicaragua (@EmbEspNicaragua) February 9, 2022
The Spanish diplomatic mission to the Holy See was based in 1475 by the Catholic Monarchs, when the envoys had been nonetheless itinerant. The headquarters didn’t arrive till 1622, when he managed to call the sq. after him, one thing that occurred on a couple of events within the Eternal City, and which accounts for the piece of historical past inside its partitions and the affect that the establishment got here to have. From the surface it’s a powerful visible enclave in Piazza di Spagna, from the within the treasure it homes is nearly incalculable and can be utterly in tune with its continent. An infinity of rooms that had been used on the time when the ambassador was additionally an interceptor between heaven and earth and had political and ecclesiastical significance. It has artworks and a powerful heritage such because the works sculpted by a younger Bernini, priceless jewels, ‘Soul Condemned’ and ‘Soul Saved’. Also noteworthy are 36 Flemish, French and Italian tapestries, three of them manufactured from wool, in addition to an imposing staircase on the entrance designed by Borromini. All in a 14,000 sq. meter constructing the place 16 households of diplomatic personnel nonetheless dwell.
As we defined, the constructing served as an official residence from 1622. Used by Spain from the start to show its greatness outdoors the nation, and, above all, to ascertain relations with the Holy See. But the truth of this embassy went a lot additional, it was additionally a cultural heart and even, in all this time, it was sooner or later the seat of a theater. The diplomatic journey is stuffed with peculiarities and in addition legends. The names of ambassadors who handed by way of right here stand out, reminiscent of Garcilaso de la Vega or Ángel Sanz Briz, the ‘Angel of Budapest’, who died within the palace in 1980, acknowledged for having saved 6,000 Jews by issuing false passports when he was Spanish consul in Hungary . Or additionally the ability dispute that Spain had with France over this constructing through which the ability of your entire space of the Italian capital was at stake. If the Spanish Steps had been a giant butterfly, the best wing went to France on the finish, on the prime of the steps of Piazza di Spagna they’ve their embassy earlier than the Vatican and the left, which the Gauls didn’t get, was already endlessly signal of the presence of Spain in Italy.
It additionally turned the occasional residence of the Kings, rehabilitated in 2007 with donations from the Spanish millionaire Amancio Ortega and at all times below steady works to keep up and look after the worth of the constructing. Letizia Rodríguez, private secretary to ambassadors for the final 36 years and one of many individuals who greatest know this baroque palace, explains that it is not uncommon for everybody who arrives to hold out renovations to fine-tune the constructing and care for it. “It was a privileged showcase of the ability of the Spanish monarchy,” she says. The Spanish Embassy was well-known throughout these early years as a result of it had develop into a privileged showcase of tradition and occasions that introduced the world to life. At the doorway there have been at all times 60 musicians who entertained the welcome of everybody who entered the palace and the ambassador himself, who in these years needed to win the favor of the residents of the world, got here to dominate the jurisdiction of that neighborhood of Rome the place it granted measures, as if it had been a free state, to some 14,000 residents of the encircling areas.
With the varied ramifications, cultural, political, administrative, that characterize the worth of this place, the peculiarities that you’ve got seen inside its partitions, along with the inventive significance of the items that it guards, should not few. Eccentricities such because the one linked to the person who embodied seduction in historical past, Giacomo Casanova, who was within the palace working for a cardinal and was the promoter of the headquarters having “the letancio martyr”, an 11-year-old boy who died in the course of the persecution of the Emperor Commodus. But not solely that, it’s rumored that the well-known portray by Velázquez ‘The Forge of Vulcan’ was painted in certainly one of his rooms in Rome on the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See. A coming and going of characters and celebrities in 400 years of historical past between Spain within the coronary heart of Rome.