The Chigi palace in Formello takes its name from its last owners and it stems from the transformation of the ancient fort.
The big defence tower of the thirteenth-century castle is still visible inside Palazzo Chigi. In fact, in the second half of the fifteenth century Orsini used the tower as the core of a residential building with two floors, plus a third only over the facade.
The palace has a courtyard, a loggia and rooms decorated with frescoes and grotesques.
Among the famous inhabitants of the palace, should be mentioned Cardinal Flavio Chigi, nephew of Pope Alexander VII, who created the Novo Apartment in the Palace.
The cardinal set up a 'Museum of Natural Curiosity, Peregrine and Ancient', which became the nucleus of collections in the Palazzo Chigi since the seventeenth century.
Since 2011 the building has been the cultural centre of the town, home to the Museum of the Veientano (Veii), the Library and the Youth Hostel.
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