Palazzo Barberini

When Maffeo Barberini became Pope Urban VIII in 1623, his family set about turning a hillside property in Rome into a palace worthy of the papacy. Three of the greatest architects of the baroque worked on it in turn. Carlo Maderno began it, Gian Lorenzo Bernini took over after his death, and the young Francesco Borromini added the oval staircase that still spirals up inside.

The great hall's ceiling is the thing to look up at: Pietro da Cortona spent years painting an Allegory of Divine Providence across it, a swirling piece of Barberini propaganda with the family's bees flying up toward heaven.

Since the mid-20th century the palace has held the national collection of older painting. On its walls are Raphael's portrait of a baker's daughter known as La Fornarina, Hans Holbein's stern Henry VIII, and Caravaggio's Judith sawing through the neck of Holofernes by candlelight.