Palazzina del Segretario della Cifra, Neoclassical building near Quirinal Palace, Rome, Italy
The Palazzina del Segretario della Cifra is a Baroque building designed by Ferdinando Fuga and built from 1730 to 1732. It closes the eastern end of the Quirinal Palace's long wing, the Manica Lunga. Fuga raised it by one floor, suppressed the mezzanine, heightened the piano nobile ceiling, and marked it with a string course, breaking the repetitive window rhythm of the long wing.
Construction was completed in 1732 under Ferdinando Fuga's direction during the pontificate of Pope Clement XII Corsini. The building was conceived as part of the Quirinal Palace expansion and served the needs of papal secret communications.
The cipher secretary was a high prelate of the pope's familia who applied the cifra to secret correspondence. His role ended with the sede vacante, and as a papal familiar he answered to the pontifical majordomo rather than ordinary courts and was exempt from gabelles and chamber dues.
The palazzina closes the eastern end of the Manica Lunga at the corner of Via del Quirinale and Via dei Giardini, a short walk past the Quattro Fontane crossing. It is the private residence and study of the President of the Republic, so the interior is not open to ordinary visitors; view the 18th-century facades and the garden portal from the street.
The Fontana dei Delfini, carved in 1733 by Bernardino Ludovisi to a design by Ferdinando Fuga, once stood in the palazzina's courtyard and has since been moved elsewhere. The sculptor's name is often misspelled as Ludovski in older texts.
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