It was commissioned in 1573 by the 1500 Pope Gregory XIII chose this superb site as a papal summer residence. The palace assumed its present form only in 1730. Domenico Fontana designed the façade, Maderno the chapel and Bernini the narrow wing that runs the length of Via del Quirinale. Since 1870 it became the residence of the kings then, in 1947 of the President of the Republic.