Palazzo Montecitorio

The seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, this palace was begun by Bernini in the seventeenth century and later completed with a distinctive curved Baroque facade. An Art Nouveau extension added a semicircular debating chamber crowned by a stained-glass skylight in the early twentieth century. Before it stands an ancient Egyptian obelisk that once functioned as the pointer of a colossal sundial built by Augustus. The palace opens to visitors on scheduled days, revealing its frescoed halls and assembly hall.