Palazzetto

chapter ii • palazzo albertoni spinola: a history •
In fact, in 1603 Knight Baldassarre Paluzzi Albertoni requested a permit to build the
new facade, widening the area of the existing property towards the square and aligning
the new wall with the corner of the adjacent Capizucchi palace. In 1616 he required an
additional permit to construct, over the back door of his palace and over the alley, an
archway to allow passage to his “nearest neighbors” who were carrying out further
restructuring at that time (this is the archway built in the back, in the outside of the
building, at the height of the first floor).
The Palace, which remained in the hands of the offspring of the Altieri Family for
more than a century, was elevated with a fourth floor on top of the attic, and was sold
around 1808 by Prince Paluzzo Altieri to a famous Spanish general, Manuel Godoy y
Alvares de Faria Ríos Sánchez Zarzosa, prince of Paz de Basano (1767-1851). Somewhat
later, the building was handed over to Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca (1756-1844) who lived
there from time to time at least from 1819. After Pacca’s death, the Palace remained for
fifty years with his grandchildren who rented parts of it out to their acquaintances
including cardinals Giacomo Piccolomini and Giacomo Antonelli.
history
Thereafter, in 1886, the building was sold by the descendants of Pacca to Countess
Carolina Portalupi (1852-1891) who restored it. Subsequently, the Countess left the
Palace to her direct descendants, Genoese Marquis Spinola, Maria Antonietta and
Bonifacio. Maria Antonietta Spinola was later to marry the well-known politician
Mario Cingolani (1883- 1971), while Bonifacio Spinola married his second cousin,
countess Marina Baldeschi (1895-1983)].
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