Palazzo Montecitorio, Parliament building in Rome, Italy

Palazzo Montecitorio is a government building in central Rome that now serves as the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The curved facade displays baroque lines with a central bell tower and four red-brick towers at the corners, while the interior holds a main hall with a colored glass ceiling.

In 1653 Innocent X commissioned Bernini to build a residence for the Ludovisi family; a diplomatic quarrel with Prince Niccolò Ludovisi slowed work in 1654, and it stopped at his death in 1664. Carlo Fontana resumed it some twenty years later for Innocent XII, adding the bell gable and two side doors; the papal Curia was inaugurated there in 1696.

The name comes from the slight hill on which the palace stands, explained in Roman times either as the mons citatorius, where citizens were summoned to vote, or as the mons acceptorius, where spoil from clearing the Campus Martius was dumped. Since 1871 the building has housed the Chamber of Deputies, and its Transatlantico salon, named after the furnishings of early 20th-century ocean liners, is the informal meeting place of Italian politics.

The chamber meets in the main hall, which is accessible through a public entrance on Piazza del Parlamento when tours are available. Visitors should bring identification and expect security checks at the entrance.

The obelisk in front of the entrance once served as part of an ancient Roman sundial on the Campus Martius. The bronze she-wolf in the Hall of the She-wolf recalls the mythological founding of Rome and shows Romulus and Remus beneath the animal.