The Diplomat
The Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, the world’s longest-running diplomatic mission, culminated last Wednesday the celebrations for its 400 years of uninterrupted activity by inaugurating new lighting at its historic headquarters, the baroque Spanish Palace in Rome, reports Efe.
The new lighting, visible from the legendary Spanish Steps in the Spanish Steps, is “more versatile, more energy efficient and will serve to make the architectural lines of the palace more visible, accentuating its volumes and reinforcing the dialogue it maintains with the city of Rome”, the institution explained in a press release.
In addition, the new installation will make it possible to celebrate special dates by varying the colours and tones of the façade of the Baroque building that gives its name to the emblematic Spanish Steps in the Italian capital, where dozens of tourists and onlookers gathered to witness the switch-on.
“Today this house is dressed in artistic and colourful lighting. Light has always been associated with the positive and at the service of art and beauty,” said Spain’s ambassador to the Vatican, former minister Isabel Celaá, before the red and yellow of the Spanish flag dyed the building.
The date chosen for the premiere is no coincidence: precisely on 21 December 1622, 400 years ago, the Spanish Ambassador to the Papal States, the Duke of Alburquerque, took up residence as a tenant of the Palace, which at the time belonged to the Monaldeschi family.
In 1647, 25 years later, the building passed definitively into the hands of the Kingdom of Spain, which has maintained its activity uninterruptedly until the present day, making it the oldest permanent diplomatic mission in the world.
The lighting installation will adapt the headquarters to the concerns of the present, as it will represent a significant energy saving: it will reduce the power required by 36% compared to the previous lighting and will avoid the annual emission of 350 kilos of CO2 into the atmosphere, according to the details of the project.
