Palazzo della Cancelleria

In ancient times it was the historical seat of the Papal Chancellery, while nowadays it houses the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, the Holy See’s highest ecclesiastical court.

It was built between 1485 and 1513 by the will of Cardinal Raffaele Riario. It is an extraterritorial property of the Holy See and is designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site.

This huge palace, one of the first examples of Renaissance architecture, can be considered one of the most magnificent in town. On the main floor stand the Aula Magna (Riario Hall) and the Salone dei cento giorni, Hall of One Hundred Days, named after the fact that Giorgio Vasari (the Italian painter, architect, writer, and historian) who decorated this hall with the fresco Fatti della vita di Paolo III Farnese (On the Life of Paolo III Farnese), promised to finish the work in only one hundred days, which was ironically commented by Michelangelo “And it shows!”.

For several years now the Palace has been hosting the World Savings Day, organized by the banking association Associazione di Fondazioni e di Casse di Risparmio.