Palazzo di Propaganda Fide

The palazzo stands in Colonna, on Italian soil. Article 15 of the Lateran Treaty of 11 February 1929 provides that this building, «benché facenti parte del territorio dello Stato italiano» — although forming part of the territory of the Italian State — enjoys the immunities that international law recognises for the seats of the diplomatic agents of foreign States. It is not part of Vatican City, it is not Vatican territory, it is not a border, and a visitor there is subject to Italian law. The Holy See's own list of its extraterritorial properties in Rome names it as entry 5 of 13, «il Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, sede della Congregazione per l'Evangelizzazione dei Popoli». Roma Capitale records that the core of the building dates to 1586 and that it has been the seat of the Congregation De Propaganda Fide, founded by Gregory XV in 1622, since 1633. Between 1642 and 1644 Bernini designed and built the façade towards the piazza for Urban VIII. The façade on Via di Propaganda is Borromini's. The Cappella dei Re Magi inside the palazzo is Borromini's, built after he demolished an earlier elliptical church by Bernini; no construction year is given here, because the two sources reached give different ones.