The Albertoni Spinola Palace, with an entrance in Campitelli square at n. 2, is located in the 10th District of Rione Campitelli. The facade of the Palace, facing the piazza Campitelli, was built between 1603, and the years immediately following, with some interventions in late 1616. The work was commissioned by Marquis Baldassarre Paluzzi Albertoni to Giacomo della Porta (ca. 1540-1602), in an area likely to be rebuilt between the buildings De Rossi (later Cavalletti) and Capizucchi.
The work of Della Porta involved the project and the construction of the bearing structures and the internal partitions of the big building, in the years between 1560 and 1580. Partcularly the project, that archiect Rainaldi finished after Della Porta death, caused:
A) the architectural integration of the new construction into the ancient pre- existing Palazzetto, allowing this unit to extend and merge into the new construction without being able to recognize that you are in one side or in the other part of the Palazzo;
B) the preservation of direct view of the entry of Santa Maria (which is the Campitelli Church located in front of the Palazzo Albertoni Spinola) from the original door of the Palazzetto, despite having built the great Palazzo in front of what pre-existed building. In fact, the entrance gallery of the building forms a diagonal connection between the square and the inner courtyard;
C) the use of the old roof secret garden of the Palazzetto from the first floor of the Palazzo, making this unit a unique property of its kind.
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.
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)].
