Quirinal Palace

The Papal States ( PAY-pəl; Italian: Stato Pontificio), officially the State of the Church (Italian: Stato della Chiesa, Italian pronunciation: [ˈstaːto della ˈkjɛːza, ˈkjeː-]; Latin: Status Ecclesiasticus; also Dicio Pontificia), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 until 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th century until the unification of Italy, between 1859 and 1870. The state had its origins in the rise of Christianity throughout Italy, and with it the rising influence of the Christian Church. By the mid-8th century, with the decline of the Byzantine Empire in Italy, the Papacy became effectively sovereign. Several Christian rulers – including the Frankish kings Charlemagne and Pepin the Short – further donated lands to be governed by the Church. During the Renaissance, the papal territory expanded greatly and the pope became one of Italy's most important secular rulers as well as the head of the Church. At their zenith, the Papal States covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio (which includes Rome), Marche, Umbria and Romagna, and portions of Emilia. These holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. However, by 1861, much of the Papal States' territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy. Only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the pope's temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, except the Basilica of St Peter and the papal residence and related buildings around the Vatican quarter of Rome, which the new Italian state did not occupy militarily, despite annexation of Lazio. In 1929 the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, the head of the Italian government, ended the "Prisoner in the Vatican" problem involving a unified Italy and the Holy See by negotiating the Lateran Treaty, signed by the two parties. This treaty recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See over a newly created international territorial entity, a city state within Rome limited to a token territory which became the Vatican City.

The Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic (Italian: Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana) is the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law. Sometimes, the name Consulta is used as a metonym for it, because its sessions are held in Palazzo della Consulta in Rome.

The Palazzo della Consulta (built 1732–1737) is a late Baroque palace in central Rome, Italy, that since 1955 houses the Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic. It sits across the Piazza del Quirinale from the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, the Quirinal Palace.

The Fontana dei Dioscuri is the fountain set opposite the Palazzo del Quirinale, the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic in the Piazza del Quirinale. The original fountain, which no longer exists, commissioned by Pope Sixtus V in 1588, had the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux statues, from Constantine I of Rome's Baths, moved to the piazza, from the site, thought to have been nearby, flanking it. In the late 1780s by Antinori, was commissioned by Pope Pius VI, to make a better layout for the piazza and had the fountain and the Dioscuri moved, and included the large Obelisk which had been moved from the Campus Martius in the design. Some time between, that original fountain was lost, and, in 1818 a new one, which can be seen today, was commissioned by Pope Pius VII and was designed by Raffaele Stern using an ancient granite Roman shell that had been found in the 16th century supported on top of a large basin. It was sited in front of the two statues with the obelisk between them. In 1810, the Rome-based sculptor Paolo Triscornia sent the reduced copies of the Dioscuri to Saint Petersburg for his compatriot Giacomo Quarenghi. They were put up in front of the Saint Petersburg Manege six years later.

The Quirinal Hill (; Latin: Collis Quirinalis; Italian: Quirinale [kwiriˈnaːle]) is one of the Seven Hills of Rome, at the north-east of the city center. It is the location of the official residence of the Italian head of state, who resides in the Quirinal Palace; by metonymy "the Quirinal" has come to stand for the Italian president. The Quirinal Palace has an extension of 1.2 million square feet.

The Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi is a palace in Rome, Italy. It was built by the Borghese family on the Quirinal Hill; its footprint occupies the site where the ruins of the baths of Constantine stood, whose remains still are part of the basement of the main building, the Casino dell'Aurora. Its first inhabitant was the famed art collector Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V, who wanted to be housed near the large papal Palazzo Quirinale. The palace and garden of the Pallavicini-Rospigliosi were the product of the accumulated sites and were designed by Giovanni Vasanzio and Carlo Maderno in 1611–16. Scipione owned this site for less than a decade, 1610–16, and commissioned the construction and decoration of the casino and pergolata, facing the garden of Montecavallo. The Roman palace of this name should not be mistaken for the panoramic Villa Pallavicino on the shores of Lake Como in Lombardy.

Baths of Constantine (Latin, Thermae Constantinianae) was a public bathing complex built on the Quirinal Hill in Rome by Constantine I, probably before 315.Ancient Constantinople and Arles also had complexes known as Baths of Constantine.

The Church of Saint Andrew on the Quirinal (Italian: Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Latin: S. Andreae in Quirinali) is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, Italy, built for the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill. The church of Sant'Andrea, an important example of Roman Baroque architecture, was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini with Giovanni de'Rossi. Bernini received the commission in 1658 and the church was constructed by 1661, although the interior decoration was not finished until 1670. The site previously accommodated a 16th-century church, Sant'Andrea a Montecavallo. Commissioned by former Cardinal Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili, with the approval of Pope Alexander VII, Sant'Andrea was the third Jesuit church constructed in Rome, after the Church of the Gesù and Sant'Ignazio. It was to serve the Jesuit novitiate, which was founded in 1566. Bernini considered the church one of his most perfect works; his son, Domenico, recalled that in his later years, Bernini spent hours sitting inside it, appreciating what he had achieved.The French dramatist Victorien Sardou set the first act of his play La Tosca in the church. It has served as the titular church of Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer since 2007.

The Teatro Eliseo (literally "Eliseus Theater") is a theatre located in Rome, Italy. Initially named Arena Nazionale ("National Arena"), built of wood and dedicated to variety shows, over the years took on increasing importance, up to undergoing a makeover in 1938 that decreed its current appearance and name.

The Torre delle Milizie ("Tower of the Militia") is a fortified tower in Rome, Italy, located between Trajan's Market in the Imperial fora to the southwest and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, or Angelicum, to the east.

Play, The Videogame World was the first European exhibition on videogames. It was held at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, one of the main contemporary art museums in Rome - Italy, from 24 April to 10 July 2002. The exhibition was visited by over 50,000 people.

The Palazzo delle Esposizioni is a neoclassical exhibition hall, cultural center and museum on Via Nazionale in Rome, Italy. Designed by Pio Piacentini, it opened in 1883. It has housed several exhibitions (e.g. Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, Mostra Augustea della Romanità), but was temporarily modified during the Fascist era due to its style being thought to be out of step with the times. The building is owned by the City of Rome and the gallery is administered by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, an agency run by the City's Office for Education and Culture.It incorporates a 139-seat cinema, a 90-seat auditorium, a café, a large, 240-place restaurant, a library and a multi-functional room known as the Forum.