MICHETTI, Nicola - b. 1675 Venezia, d. 1758 Roma

Italian architect, pupil and collaborator of Carlo Fontana. He worked for years in Rome under Carlo Fontana, including as a foreman (Capomaestro) in the reconstruction of the Basilica of Santi Apostoli. Nicola independently submitted a proposal for the Trevi Fountain (1704), however, the winning commission went to Salvi. Nicola performed smaller architectural projects in Rome and built an 18th century housing project for the Congregazione degli Illvici, in the former Schiavonia quarter of Rome.

Between 1718 and 1723, Michetti moved to Russia, and became employed by Tsar Peter the Great as court architect. His main work of these years is the garden and the cascading fountain of the Peterhof Palace near St. Petersburg. He made designs for the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn and the Constantine Palace in Strelna. His plan for a monumental lighthouse on the Black Sea was never executed. Many of his designs from the Russian era are now in the Hermitage Museum.

Returning to Rome, he worked on important commissions including the renovation of Palazzo Colonna (1731-1735). Michetti also made numerous designs for temporary architecture, especially for theatre sets and fireworks displays.

Coffeehouse

The powerful Colonna family had lived on the western slope of the Quirinale in Rome since the Middle Ages. Over the years it managed to link together the various houses it had built and purchased over time into a unified ensemble of palaces, courtyards, and gardens. In the seventeenth century, the art-loving cardinal Girolamo I Colonna (1604-1666) began turning the complex into a Baroque residence. Construction began in 1650. The south wing, containing the Grande Galleria, was built between 1661 and 1700 at the behest of the cardinal’s nephew Lorenzo Onofrio (1637-1689).

Under the sons of Filippo II Colonna (1663-1714) more additions were made to the palace. A new wing was erected between 1730-33 by Nicola Michetti. Of this wing only the corner pavilion has survived unchanged, and in it is one of the loveliest interiors from the Roman Rococo. The room was also designed by Michetti. The square space, which is referred to as the Coffeehouse and was in fact used as a public caf� up to the 1930s, fits the type of the small pleasure house that became fashionable in the eighteenth century.