Official Information
Official website: https://galleriaspada.cultura.gov.it/en/
Online tickets: https://portale.museiitaliani.it/b2c/buyTicketless/5f2439e6-4508-42f0-a875-8afd646a19e0
Address: Piazza Capo di Ferro 13, 00186 Roma RM, Italy
Map: View on Google Maps
Opening Hours
According to the official Galleria Spada site, the museum is generally open daily except certain weekdays, with recent notices indicating opening from 08:30 to 19:30 (last ticket 19:00; last entrance to the Perspective Garden 18:30) on designated free-entry days. Because opening hours, closing days and access conditions have recently changed, visitors must always check the Tickets and Info page for up-to-date schedules before planning a visit.
Palazzo Spada stands a short distance from Campo de’ Fiori and hosts both a historic palace and the state museum known as Galleria Spada. The seventeenth-century residence was purchased and remodeled by Cardinal Bernardino Spada, who commissioned Francesco Borromini to rework parts of the architecture. The most famous feature is Borromini’s forced-perspective gallery in the courtyard: a seemingly long colonnade that in reality is only a few meters deep, achieved by progressively shrinking the columns and raising the floor. Inside, the gallery preserves a compact but important collection of Baroque painting arranged as a historic picture gallery. In a suite of four richly decorated rooms on the piano nobile, works by artists such as Guercino, Rubens, Artemisia and Orazio Gentileschi, and Titian are hung densely from floor to ceiling, reflecting seventeenth-century taste. The interplay of paintings, stuccoes, mirrors and furnishings creates an intimate atmosphere closer to that of a private residence than a modern museum. Labels and room guides help visitors navigate the collection thematically and highlight key works, while still preserving the historic layout. Because Galleria Spada is part of the Italian Ministry of Culture’s network, its website provides official information on opening hours, free-entry days, ticket prices and any temporary closures, as well as details on temporary exhibitions and educational activities. For travellers interested in Baroque Rome beyond the most famous churches, Palazzo Spada offers a double experience: Borromini’s ingenious architectural illusion in the courtyard and one of the city’s most charming historic picture galleries upstairs.