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The Primoli Palace
When I retired I chose to have a house in the Castelli Romani. I was in love with these places where the ancient Romans already came on vacation and then the popes and the ancient travelers who made the Grand Tour. I was attracted by the brightness and transparency of the air in particular on the terrace of this house and I decided to renovate it. At that time I also decided to devote myself completely to my usual passion, photography, and only later discovered that that house had belonged to Count Giuseppe Primoli, one of the first great photographers of the 19th century, perhaps the first who, people and street life, he dedicated himself to what is now called street photography, made with the optical bench.
Amazed by this magical coincidence, I had the curiosity to deepen the history of the Palace. I discovered that it was purchased in the late 1820s by Carlo Luciano Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, eldest son of Luciano (Napoleon's brother). The daughter of the Prince of Canino, Princess Carlotta, was the legitimate heir and, having married the pioneer of "fin de siecle" photography, Count Giuseppe Primoli, known as Gegè, proceeded to expand the building, later known as "Primoli" and its park now definitively recovered, furnished and returned to the public. The Palazzo, a typical neoclassical building, saw its maximum splendor in the times of Gegè Primoli, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when it hosted, among others, Marcel Prevòst, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Eleonora Duse, Matilde Serao and Aristide Sartorio. In the archive of the Primoli Foundation I found interesting historical photos and among these some taken near the Palace and on the terrace of our House which evidently had also excited our Gegè.
Amazed by this magical coincidence, I had the curiosity to deepen the history of the Palace. I discovered that it was purchased in the late 1820s by Carlo Luciano Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, eldest son of Luciano (Napoleon's brother). The daughter of the Prince of Canino, Princess Carlotta, was the legitimate heir and, having married the pioneer of "fin de siecle" photography, Count Giuseppe Primoli, known as Gegè, proceeded to expand the building, later known as "Primoli" and its park now definitively recovered, furnished and returned to the public. The Palazzo, a typical neoclassical building, saw its maximum splendor in the times of Gegè Primoli, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when it hosted, among others, Marcel Prevòst, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Eleonora Duse, Matilde Serao and Aristide Sartorio. In the archive of the Primoli Foundation I found interesting historical photos and among these some taken near the Palace and on the terrace of our House which evidently had also excited our Gegè.