The building, a noble residence of the Petrignani, was enlarged and completely renovated in the late 80s of the sixteenth century by the Papal architect Ottaviano Mascarino. The portal, with a strong “Mascariniana” imprint, presents the hidden area of the cornice carved with heraldic symbols that recall the insignia of Petrignani (Trimonzio) or families related to the House Amelia (roses of Nini, the spheres of Boccarini).

The inscription “Bartholomeus Petrignanus MDLIII” carved in a stone plated walled entrance to the main floor, is to report on the first phase of the work, and coincides with the year of the wedding of Teodorina Cansacchi with Bartholomew, owner of the building and brother of Archbishop Fantino Petrignani, man of the Curia, Governor and Diplomat, known for hosting Caravaggio in his early Roman days. The architecture of the building had to be completed in 1592, when Bartholomew, wanting to decorate the rooms of his palace, called Amelia brothers Alberti Sansepolcro, who had to decline the invitation. The vaults of the rooms, covered with a rich pictorial score, distributed in eight environments, was performed in at least two phases, between the last decade of the sixteenth century and the first of the seventeenth century.

 After the waiver by the Alberti brothers, the first rooms of the building were painted by artists connected in a belated manner to the Roman umbra, strongly marked by the style of the master Livio Agresti from Forlì in the early 70s of the sixteenth century. Among the different hands involved in the decoration the amerino Tarquinio Racani, the durantino Giustino Episcopi can been identified, while it is only conceivable in the pictorial yard of Palace Petrignani, the work of the amerino Liotardo Piccioli, faithful helper of the Agresti. The Amerina team was used in the decoration of a large repertoire of recordings (Raimondi, Caraglio, Cavalieri, Galle, Cort, Sadeler, Collaert) and in the appropriate mythographic repertoire (Images of the Gods of V. Cartari, Venice, 1571).

The dining rooms thus be divided: The Chapel and the Antechapel, the Lounge of the Zodiac, The Hall of Constantine and Maxentius, The Hall of Albornoz, The Hall of Heraclius, The Hall of Somaschi, The Hall of Strigonia. More information available through QrCode service The Chapel and the Antechapel The subjects depicted in the two environments are closely related to the theme of Christian marriage, which, in the ante chapel, is at the center and depicts an allegorical representation. The chapel, probably unfinished and devoid of altar, presents the most sophisticated, refined and extravagant decoration of the mansion. Dominating the ceiling, the Creation of Eve, attributed to Episcopi. The Lounge of the Zodiac The lounge, large-scale and significantly decorated, was thought, probably, as a courtly setting for meetings and ceremonies of the Petrignani family.

The ceiling is decorated with paintings showing the crests of the popes served by Monsignor Fantino (Pius IV, Gregory XIII, Gregory XIV, Clement VIII). At center stage, Leo the Great rejecting Attila prevails, interpolated from the original copy of Raphael in the Vatican rooms. The activities of the land, from which the family Petrignani drew their income, centers in the cycle of months in the lunettes and medallions with the four elements represented (earth, water, air, fire). From ceiling to floor, in the over doors, the maps of four cities: Florence, Rome, Bologna and Milan.

The Hall of Constantine and Maxentius

It is the antechamber of the Salon. The central subject of the painting celebrates the victory of Emperor Constantine and Christian Rome against pagan Rome. References to the Empire multiply in angular crests and two views painted on the left wall of the passageway: Constantinople, studded with Ottoman crescents, and Prague.

The Hall of Albornoz

The last room in which the Amerina workshop worked takes its name from the scene of the center pane in which the recapture of Amelia to the patrimony of St. Peter by the Cardinal Albornoz (1310-1367) is shown. At the corners are the four cardinal crests (Bonelli, Ghislieri, Orsini, Sfondrati). The complex decoration around the middle pane is a riot of grotesque including the insertion of mythological episodes and allegorical images.

The Hall of Heraclius

With the hall of Heraclius the second phase of the building assigned to the decorative painter Sabine Ganassini Marzio and his workshop (ca. 1607) begins. The victory of the Byzantine Emperor is set under the walls of Nineveh and near the Tigris River whose personification appears in the foreground. In the two lower portions with the divine couple of Neptune and Amphitrite the mythological time cycle continues. The image of the Annunciation on the right wall qualifies this hall as a private environment multipurpose room, intended both as room or hall.

The Hall of Somaschi

At the center of the room the Foundation in Amelia of the College of St. Angelo Somaschi in 1601 is painted. The number of coats of arms are all Episcopal: between the four arms of the Archbishop we recognize Fantino and those of Monsignor Graziani, bishop of Amelia between 1592 and 1611.

The Hall of Strigonia

The room is the size of a dressing room perhaps destined for a small armory. Panoplies and cannons mark the decoration theme, while on the sails of the smaller trapezoid room, in the center, two female figures identifiable with the armed Athena and Venus are placed. In the center pane is the Siege of Strigonia of 1595 that saw the imperial and papal armies victorious over the Turks. In the military map the papal flags of Clement VIII opposed to Turkish crescents of Islamic flags fluttering on the towers of the city are clearly distinguished. At the corners there are four coats of arms and between these are those of Mario Farnese, injured in Strigonia, and the coat of arms of Malatesta, perhaps attributable to Carlo Felice Malatesta, leader in the Long War and future General of the Church in Avignon.