Aim of project is to increase visitor flow and expand cultural offer.
Rome’s Galleria Borghese, home to masterpieces by Bernini, Caravaggio and Raphael, is set to be extended with a new building adjacent to the original 17th-century villa.
The plan, which has the initial backing of the city, is to allow the gallery to welcome more visitors and broaden its exhibition programme, La Repubblica newspaper reports.
Under the current arrangement, no more than 360 visitors may enter the museum per session, with two-hour time slots and compulsory exits on completion.
Designed to protect the precious artworks and ensure visitor safety, the existing system also sharply limits public access in a city where tourist numbers continue to grow.
Expansion project
Galleria Borghese director Francesca Cappelletti launched a tender for technical sponsorship to draw up a feasibility study for the new structure, and the museum has reportedly accepted a proposal from Proger Spa, an engineering firm based in Pescara, to take on that role.
The administration of Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri has adopted a resolution supporting the expansion project – La Repubblica reports – and directed the capitoline superintendency for cultural heritage to initiate all the administrative procedures needed to support the museum’s planning process.
Three councillors – Sabrina Alfonsi (environment), Massimiliano Smeriglio (culture) and Maurizio Veloccia (urban planning) – signed the memorandum, describing the intervention as one of the most significant cultural investments in the capital’s near future.
Transformation
The planned extension is envisaged not merely as additional floor space but as a transformation of the museum’s function.
New exhibition rooms would be dedicated to works currently held in storage, alongside spaces designed to improve accessibility and visitor reception.
A significant portion of the collection is currently kept in a third-floor depot and has never been on public display.
Councillor Smeriglio described the proposed expansion as an opportunity to rethink the Galleria not only as a museum but as a cultural hub, with study rooms and conference facilities, and acknowledged that architects will “have to take into account multiple conservation constraints” when drawing up plans.
The project is at a very early stage, with the feasibility study still to be completed before any design work can begin.
