The Families Who Made Rome

Anthony Majanlahti’s book, The Families Who Made Rome: A History and a Guide is simultaneously a social history of Rome’s most noble families and a guidebook that allows you to see Rome in a whole new way. If you’ve ever wandered from Palazzo Barberini to Piazza Colonna or from the Villa Borghese to the Palazzo Medici and wondered who built all these grand palaces, piazzas, and gardens, then this book is for you!

The book begins with an introduction to the “Broken City,” the Rome created by the long Middle Ages, when power struggles and financial woes took their toll on the city that had once been the capital of the Roman Empire. From there, Majanlahti sets out to show us how the magnificent Rome we experience today came into being and he places much of the responsibility for the rejuvination of the city in the hands of its most noble residents - families such as the Colonna, the Della Rovere, the Farnese, the Borghese, and the Barberini.

The book is divided into chapters that focus on the architectural and artistic achievements of a particular family. These chapters make great reading for the armchair traveler, but also serve as an interesting guide for visitors to Rome.