Its body is raw, heavy and monumental, which is further emphasized by the battlements surrounding it, and the tower stretching out above it. Truly Renaissance elements can be found on the palace courtyard, opening up with a two-level loggia with stone arcades, pilasters and semi-columns, inseparably tied with a return to Roman roots. The palace was created in the second half of the XV century and was a symbol of the new papacy, emerging out of the trauma of the Avignon Papacy (1309-1377), which drove it to the borders of existential abyss. Initially a fortress residence of the Venetian titular cardinal of the Church of San Marco, Pietro Barbo was erected here, who after ascending to the papal throne in 1464 and taking on the name of Paul II expanded the palace and here, in the very heart of the city, established his seat. Works on it were entrusted to the architect Francesco del Borgo, who expanded the pre-existing, modest cardinal’s residence to a form of an imposing residence into which he incorporated the Church of San Marco as well. The created complex also included a garden found inside the courtyard (Palazzetto), connected with the main residence by a tower which was constructed in the meantime.

The broad interior decorated with tapestries and paintings was a testimony to the rank of the head of the Church demonstrated to earthly rulers and ambassadors. From here the pope could look on the carnival parties which he enjoyed as well as the famous races in which both people and animals took part, racing from the start at the papal palace, through via del Corso, all the way to the Piazza del Popolo, and finishing their run once again by the papal residence. The construction works stretching all the way until 1491 and the discomfort associated with it, as well as a conspiracy against the pope’s life, caused the pontiff to abandon his residence and move into the palace on the Vatican. Still, this continued to be an alternative papal residence, used mainly for representative and ceremonial purposes.

The palace found itself under the patronage of the titular cardinals of the Church of San Marco, who resided here and who continued to decorate its interior with stuccos and paintings. The penultimate years of splendor were experienced by the palace during the pontificate of Pope Paul III, who used it as his summer residence, enlarging the middle windows of the façade and constructing two chapels.

In 1564 Pope Pius IV, in order to please and politically win over Venice, gave the palace to the Republic of Venice and its ambassador had resided there since that time. At the end of the XVIII century, when Venice found itself under Austrian rule, the structure came into the possession of the Habsburgs and their representative in the Eternal City. In the years 1910-1913 the palace appearance underwent a revolutionary change. Due to the reconstruction of Piazza Venezia and erecting the statue of Victor Emmanuel (Altar of the Fatherland), the old building of Paul II, meaning the so-called Palazzetto was taken apart and moved to the other side of the Piazza San Marco, in the vicinity of the via delle Botteghe Oscure.

During World War I, the Italian government took over the building setting up a national museum inside. Its subsequent fate was equally dramatic. The prime minister of the then Italian state, Benito Mussolini used it as a seat of his government. From its balcony for twenty-one years of his rule he spoke to Romans. Immediately after the war the generals of the united allied forces looked on at a grand parade of armies, which had defeated Fascist Italy.

Today it houses a library, the Institute of Archeology and Art History, the Directorate of the National Museums of the Lazio Region, but above all a museum – the Museo Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Venezia, whose collections include tapestries, sculptures as well as objects of applied arts.