The Palazzo del Viminale is an historic palace in Rome (Italy), seat of the Prime Minister and of the Ministry of Interior since 1925; in 1961 the Prime Minister was transferred to Palazzo Chigi.

History

The palace was commissioned by Giovanni Giolitti, who conceived it as the nerve centre of Italian Executive (at that time the office of Prime Minister and Interior Minister were fulfilled by a single person).

The palace was designed in 1911 by the architect Manfredo Manfredi and was officially inaugurated on July 9, 1925.

Description

The Palazzo del Viminale is 5 floors high with hundreds of rooms, linked each other by a series of crossed itineraries. The imposing three-arched entrance of the Palazzo della Presidenza, the staircase of honor of the Palazzo degli Uffici, the room of the Council of Ministers and the entrance hall of the staircase at the piano nobile, with its wood, marble and stucco decorations, are especially noteworthy.

The boardrooms of the Minister are placed in a side complex, linked to the main building by an arched junction.

The gardens and the terraces are overbuilded and abut with the surrounding streets, standing out of the road surface.

The back gardens separate the main complex from smaller buildings. In fact, almost opposite to the back façade there is the little palace that housed the Royal Institute for Physics, in which Enrico Fermi carried out his experiments together with the Via Panisperna boys (so called because the little palace is closer to the exit on Via Panisperna). The palace also housed the Royal Institute for Chemistry.

The main building houses many libraries:

• the Libreria Centrale al Viminale
• the Biblioteca della Direzione Centrale per l'Amministrazione del Fondo Edifici di Culto
• the Biblioteca della Scuola Superiore dell'Amministrazione dell'Interno
• the Biblioteca della Direzione Centrale per la Documentazione e la statistica

It also houses bank tellers, post offices and many coffee shops.

External links

• The Palazzo on the website of Interior Ministry