The Palazzo Corsini is a prominent late-baroque palace in Rome, erected for the Corsini family between 1730–1740 as an elaboration of the prior building on the site, a 15th-century villa of the Riario family, based on designs of Ferdinando Fuga. During 1659–1689, the former Riario palace had hosted the eccentric Christina, Queen of Sweden, who abdicated, converted, and moved to Rome. Under her pat
ronage, this was the site for the first meetings of the Roman Accademia dell'Arcadia.In 1736, the Florentine Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, nephew of Pope Clement XII (formerly Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini), acquired the villa and land, and commissioned the structure now standing. During the Napoleonic occupation of Rome, the palace hosted Joseph Bonaparte.Today, the palace hosts some offices of the National Academy of Science (Accademia dei Lincei) and the Galleria Corsini. The gardens, which rise up the Janiculum hill, are part of the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza", a botanical garden. This also, is not the sole Palazzo Corsini in Italy; there are a handful of palaces belonging to various lines of this Florentine family, which acquired and built this Roman palace, sometime referred to as Palazzo Corsini Lungarno only upon the ascension of their family member to the papacy. Another Corsini palace of note include the Palazzo Corsini al Parione, facing the banks of the Arno in Florence.
