Italian castles and country seats . corated with frescoes of Ancient throne room is enormous in size and height, butthe most interesting place in the palace is the roomcontaining a collection of the portraits of the mostbeautiful women in Italy in the seventeenth century;while another chamber has the portraits of the twelvenieces of Alexander VII, who were so impressedwith the elevation of their uncle to the papacy thatthey all became nuns to please him. In a large room at the top of the palace is a carriageof the Chigi Pope who was elected in 1655 and died in1667. It is to this Pope
Italian castles and country seats . corated with frescoes of Ancient throne room is enormous in size and height, butthe most interesting place in the palace is the roomcontaining a collection of the portraits of the mostbeautiful women in Italy in the seventeenth century;while another chamber has the portraits of the twelvenieces of Alexander VII, who were so impressedwith the elevation of their uncle to the papacy thatthey all became nuns to please him. In a large room at the top of the palace is a carriageof the Chigi Pope who was elected in 1655 and died in1667. It is to this Pope that we owe the magnificentcolonnade that is built in the Piazza of St. Peter atRome. The House of Savelli sold Ariccia in 1661 to theChigi family. This family originally came from Sienain the time of Sixtus IV, and grew rich in exchangetransac\:ions. Agostino Chigi was the banker of Alex-ander VI and afterward became the financial adviserof the war Pope, Julius II (Delia Rovere). Chigis wealth increased to such a tremendous[ 392 ]. 8UIVU83V .TM Q VI A 8ajqA/I i O YAS ,01IJI801itiOl aOA<I 3 3 8) I T A L 1 :\ .\ V ;v o J J. i . .^ Diana Aricina, whose priest was always a runawayslave, who was called king of Ariccia (rex Ariciae). It must have been a very uncomfortable position tohold, for, according to tradition, every fugitive slavehad the right to kill him and occupy his place untilhe was killed in his turn. Thanks to the courtesy of Prince Chigi, we wereshown all about the palace, which is very large and con-tains much that is elegant in furniture and of the walls of the rooms are covered with therarest of old Spanish leathers, and Prince Chigisstudy is decorated with frescoes of Ancient throne room is enormous in size and height, butthe most interesting place in the palace is the roomcontaining a collection of the portraits of the mostbeautiful women in Italy in the seventeenth century;jv^la a]R©|:liKR -ehQBibej: dias stbeNjaoBtitaite ffirfitheu
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectitalydescriptionandt
