Our Exhibition Venue
PALAZZO MERULANA, ROME
Palazzo
Merulana
Palazzo Merulana is located in the heart of Rome’s Esquilino district, inside the former city Health Office, a historic building that remained unused for many years before being restored and returned to the city through a major urban and cultural regeneration project. Its reopening transformed a significant architectural site into a contemporary cultural space, connecting historical memory, art, and urban life.
Today, Palazzo Merulana is a dynamic center dedicated to modern and contemporary art, but also a place for encounter, cultural production, and public participation. Its mission goes beyond preserving and promoting the collection: the Palazzo hosts exhibitions, public programs, events, and projects designed to foster dialogue between art, the city, and its communities, with particular attention to the Esquilino district and Rome’s broader public.
The project stems from the vision of the Fondazione Elena e Claudio Cerasi, established in 2014 to preserve and promote the modern and contemporary art collection built by Elena and Claudio Cerasi. The recovery of the building was strongly supported by the Foundation, which chose CoopCulture as its management partner, developing a model of cultural access that is open, contemporary, and inclusive.
Inside Palazzo Merulana is the Cerasi Collection, focused mainly on twentieth-century Italian art and the Roman School, with works by artists such as Giacomo Balla, Mario Sironi, Giorgio de Chirico, Antonio Donghi, Mario Mafai, Antonietta Raphaël, and Giuseppe Capogrossi. The collection also opens onto later developments and contemporary research, including works by artists such as Lucio Fontana, Mario Schifano, Alighiero Boetti, Luigi Ontani, and Jan Fabre, creating a path that connects the history of Italian art with more recent languages and practices.
Exhibition Venue
Palazzo Merulana
Rome
Via Merulana, 121 – Rome