Art
The Surprising Reason Why Apple Restored This 19th Century Building
And the even more surprising history behind it
Located at Via del Corso 180, Rome, Apple’s new store is more than just a store.
Walking in, you are greeted by a sprawling courtyard with lush camphor trees juxtaposed against white stone pillars, reminiscent of a 19th century palace.
To the west of this courtyard, you’ll find a grand staircase, rich with mouldings and an oculus. Before you forget that you are in an Apple Store, you find yourself in a long corridor that connects to the company’s retail stores, forum space and Genius Bar.
With Foster + Partners, Apple has restored the Palazzo Marignoli to house its 17th store in Italy. This is not the first time Apple has done this — previous restorations include the Carnegie Library, Champs Élysées, and Regent street.
If the thought of an electronics store in a 19th century Palazzo makes you pause, you’re not the only one. It seemed so peculiar to me that it got me researching about the origins of the Palazzo to uncover what made it so special.
When one researches the history of a place, one expects to find interesting stories — why it was built, who made it, how was the life of the people coming in its orbit. What I found about the Palazzo Marignoli was something entirely unexpected altogether. I realised that I wasn’t reading the history of one place at all.
We think of places as stationary, but in actuality they are the closest experience we have in time travel. The Palazzo Marignoli’s history is not one but three histories. It’s the story of all that came before and after it. Centuries of lives lived; condensed to a single spot. On Via del Corso, 180.
1. Santa Maria Maddalena delle Convertite
Palazzo Marignoli is named after Filippo Marignoli — a politician, banker, numismatist and amateur architect who comissioned its construction between 1878–1883. But before it was the Palazzo Marignoli, it was the Santa Maria Maddalena delle Convertite, a monastery build in the 15th century for a very specific purpose. The purpose? Housing repentant prostitutes who wished to “pay” for their sins through life as converted women. This club was so exclusive that even the old and the sick ones were turned away from help lest they be turning to the convent as a last refuge, as a convenience rather than genuine repentance.
The convent burnt down in 1617 only to be restored later, but by the time the 18th century rolled around, the monastery had been suppressed.
2. Palazzo Marignoli
It was another 100 or so years later when the Filippo Marignoli was nominated as senator of the kingdom of Italy. Marquis Filippo decided that one residence simply wasn’t enough for a man of his stature. Neither were six or seven or eight. The Palazzo Marignoli — the third Palazzo to be named as such and the ninth estate of the Marignoli family thus came into existence.
The architect responsible for the design was Salvatore Bianchi, of the Stazione Termini fame, or the Termini Railway Station in Rome.
A few years later the facade had to be taken down owing to expansion of the Via del Corso street, and another architect Guilio Podesti was put in charge.
3. Caffè Aragno
What Via del Corso, 180, is most known for, though, is not even the Palazzo Marignoli. From 1886 to 1995, the Palazzo housed the Caffè Aragno.
On an afternoon stoll by the café, you wouldn’t have been surprised to find the likes of José Carlos Mariátegui (one of the most influential Latin American socialist of his time), and Roberto Bracco (6 times Nobel Literature Prize nominee) gesturing wildly over a heated debate. Caffè Aragno was a favourite among journalists, artists, writers, actors and other artists, so much so, that the café’s third room was christened the sancta sanctorum of literature, art and journalism.
The importance of the place is captured nowhere better than in a painting by Amerigo Bartoli. Titled Gli Amici al Caffè and winner of the Venice Biennale award, it is displayed in La Galleria Nazionale in Rome.
Legend has it that Massimo Bontempelli, famous Italian writer and poet got into a heated argument with Giuseppe Ungaretti (seventh from the left in the painting) which left Ungaretti’s cheek red and smarting. Ungaretti responded as any normal guy would — he challenged Bontempelli to a duel. Back then, although duels were not allowed, they were tolerated as long as they took place behind closed doors. And poet and dramatist Luigi Pirandello was all too happy to oblige and provide his villa for the spectacle.
The stage was set, the actors took their positions. In their formal attire complete with a tie and suspenders, the poets doubled as swordsmen and battled it out.
And Ungaretti lost.
Lucky for him, this wasn’t a duel to the death. Bontempelli left, satisfied with drawing blood this time so he could go for the kill later. Kidding, they reconciled right after the duel.
During the roaring 20s, the café’s owner Guiseppe Aragno, former friend of Mussolini, came upon a revelation. It disturbed him so deeply that he not only expressed hostility to his now former friend’s regime, but also left the country to spend the last of his days in America. That revelation came through the Matteotti crime. In 1924, Giacomo Matteotti, Secretary of the United Socialist Party or Partito Socialista Unitario and an anti-fascist politician was kidnapped and murdered by a fascist squad led by Amerigo Dumini. The crime was believed to be ordered by Mussolini himself.
In 1955, the Caffè Aragno became Caffè Alemagna and stayed so till 2014. That is, until Apple (with Foster + Partners) picked up the old chisel and carved out an Apple Store from it.
The restoration pays homage to the rich heritage of the Palazzo, with the camphor trees in the courtyard reminiscent of and informed by the 16th century convent, large ceiling paintings from the early 20th century, and artworks from the building’s art cafe days.
All these histories culminate into the now Apple Store, which is yet to make another history of it. Just as a tech devices store is a norm for us, so was a convent in the 16th century, an imperial estate in the 19th century and a political café during a revolution.
Think of the first house you lived in, and for sure you’ll have strong memories associated with it. That table where you had breakfast, those afternoons after school where you plopped down in front of the TV, the walls which you crayoned till some adult caught you out. But before it was your house, what was it decades, even centuries ago? Who else (now long dead) had their own special memories of that place?
