The building was designed by Alfonso Torreggiani (XVIIth century) by will of Pope Benedict XIVth as the seat of the Archbishop's Seminary. In 1912, the building was transformed into a hotel and it is still the most prestigious hotel in the city. A room of the first floor, connected to the nearby Palazzo Fava, retains a frieze representing the “Stories of Europe” painted at the end of XVIth century by Agostino, Annibale and Ludovico Carracci.