X-Nico

unusual facts about Alexander VII



Antonio Raggi

Recently discovered documentation shows that he provided the kneeling figure of Saint Bernardino of Siena (1656–57) in Alexander VII's chapel at Santa Maria della Pace, and the two pairs of putti holding portrait medallions on the façade.

Circus of Nero

Sante Bartoli's memoirs record that when Alexander VII was building the left wing of Bernini's colonnade and the lefthand fountain, a tomb was discovered with a bas-relief above the door representing a marriage-scene ("vi era un bellissimo bassorilievo di un matrimonio antico").

Lucas Holstenius

The popes sent him on various honorable missions, such as bearing the cardinal's hat to the nuncio at Warsaw in 1629, and Alexander VII sent him to Innsbruck to receive abjuration of Protestantism by the mercurial and tiresome Christina, former Queen of Sweden.

Maria Antonia Scalera Stellini

She remarried the Tuscan Silvestro Stellini, an official of Prince Agostino Chigi, nephew of Pope Alexander VII, and went to live in their palaces in Ariccia and in Rome.


see also