CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS

Italian Musei Capitolini, complex of art galleries on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The collection was initially founded in 1471 by Pope Sixtus IV, who donated statuary recovered from ancient ruins. It was augmented by gifts from later popes and, after 1870, by acquisitions from archaeological sites on city property. The Palazzo of the Capitoline Museum was designed by Michelangelo (1536), finished about 1603, and opened to the public in 1734. It dominates the Forum from the eastern edge of the Capitoline Hill, incorporating the impressive remains of the facade of the Tabularium, built in 78 BC. The Conservatory Palazzo (154668) was constructed after a design by Michelangelo. The Palazzo Caffarelli, adjoining the Conservatory Palazzo to the south, was built in 1580 and for a time before 1918 was the German Embassy. The New Museum houses ancient works of art formerly in several municipal collections.