Palazzo Serristori, Rome

Palazzo Serristori is a Renaissance building in Rome, important for historical and architectural reasons. The palace is one of the few Renaissance buildings of the rione Borgo to have outlived the destruction of the central part of the neighborhood due to the building of Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter's Basilica.

The palace is located in Rome, in rione Borgo, between Via della Conciliazione and Borgo Santo Spirito, with the main front facing east along Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro. It lies east of Palazzo Cesi-Armellini and faces to the east Palazzo Della Rovere, two remarkable Renaissance buildings.

At the end of the 15th century on this area lay a small palace property of Cesare Borgia, one of the children of Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492–1503). Afterwards, the building was owned by Cardinal Bartolomeo Della Rovere, a staunch enemy of the Borgias. In 1565 it was pulled down, and a new palace was erected by Averardo Serristori, ambassador of Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo Medici to Pope Pius IV (r. 1559–65). The building became the seat of the embassy of Tuscany before this was moved to Palazzo Firenze in rione Campo Marzio, and remained property of the Serristori family until 1821.

In that year the Apostolic Camera bought it and transformed it in the barracks of the Papal Zouaves. In 1867, at the eve of the happenings leading to the Battle of Mentana, Giuseppe Monti and Gaetano Tognetti, two revolutionaries fighting for the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, placed a mine in a storeroom under the palace. This exploded on 22 October 1867 destroying a whole wing of the building and killing 23 Zouaves (nine of them Italians, members of the unit's musical ensemble, then soldiers under duty or punishment) and four civilians. The two revolutionies were both captured, sentenced to death and executed one year later.

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