Palazzo Castellesi, Renaissance palazzo in Borgo district, Rome, Italy

Palazzo Castellesi is a Renaissance palace in Rome's Borgo district, near St Peter's Basilica. Its travertine facade, a reworking of Alberti's Palazzo Rucellai, has two superimposed orders of pilasters slightly projecting from smooth ashlar walling, with arched windows framed by cornices between paired pilasters on the piano nobile. The plan centres on a courtyard with a four-sided ground-floor portico of arches on rectangular piers rather than columns, attributed to Raphael.

A cardinal commissioned the structure in the early 1500s, with construction spanning from 1499 to 1517 and architectural design attributed to Donato Bramante. Its completion coincided with major transformations taking place across Rome during that papal period.

The name recalls Cardinal Adriano Castellesi da Corneto, who commissioned the palace; it later passed to the French Giraud bankers and, in 1820, to the Torlonia family, whose coat of arms still sits above the great portal. The arcaded courtyard, attributed to Raphael, is the detail to look for.

The building sits on Via della Conciliazione, a central street with easy access to Vatican City and the rest of Rome. From this location, you can easily reach other historical sites and transportation hubs throughout the city.

The cardinal gifted this palace to English King Henry VII in 1504, and this occurred before construction was fully complete. Such a gesture represented a significant diplomatic exchange between the papal court and the English monarchy.