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Rhinoceros
Rome, Italy · Independent · Accessible Luxury
Alda Fendi spent years stitching three old houses above the Arch of Janus into one six-floor building, then handed it to Jean Nouvel for his first Roman commission. He left the plaster raw and the vaults exposed, and the 24 apartments that opened in October 2018 share the address with a working gallery: the inaugural show brought Michelangelo's Crouching Boy over from the Hermitage and hung fourteen of his architectural drawings where residents could go and look at them at any hour. Retrobottega now cooks on the roof.
- 24 rooms
- Opened 2018
- Neighborhood: Velabro / Forum Boarium
- Architect: Jean Nouvel
About Rhinoceros
- Jean Nouvel took this on as his first commission in Rome and deliberately left the building's wear on show: scarred plaster, bare vaults, and mirrors run the length of whole walls so the ruins outside stay in the room.
- The apartments run from 31 to 83 square metres and every window frames something ancient: the Arch of Janus, the ninth-century church of San Giorgio al Velabro, the round Temple of Hercules Victor, or the Palatine Hill.
- Alda Fendi bought the building in 2012 and opened it on 11 October 2018 as a six-floor cultural hub, with a three-year loan agreement from the State Hermitage Museum behind the first exhibitions.
- Retrobottega, the Miocchi and Lo Iudice kitchen that spent ten years off Via della Stelletta, served its last plate there on 8 March 2026 and reopened on the Rhinoceros roof six weeks later.
- A resin rhinoceros by Raffaele Curi stands out front, facing the Arch of Janus across the old Forum Boarium, where Rome ran its cattle market.
History
Rhinoceros is not one building but three, residential houses that accumulated on the embankment beside the Arch of Janus from the second half of the sixteenth century onward and were still divided into family flats when Alda Fendi bought the complex in 2012. She had founded Fondazione Alda Fendi - Esperimenti in 2001 to produce work that ignored the borders between exhibition, performance and film, and she wanted a house for it in the oldest part of the city rather than a gallery district.
Jean Nouvel accepted the conversion as his first commission in Rome and treated it as a mutation rather than a restoration. Old plaster was left scarred, vaults and stonework were left bare, and mirrors were set along entire walls so the monuments outside are always reflected back into the interiors. The building opened on 11 October 2018 with six floors of gallery, performance and retail space, 24 serviced apartments called The Rooms of Rome ranging from 31 to 83 square metres, and a restaurant on the top level with two stacked terraces. The name is a nod to Imperial Rome, when a rhinoceros was an animal out of rumour rather than experience; a resin one by Raffaele Curi stands at the door.
The opening programme was built on a three-year loan agreement with the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. It brought Michelangelo's Crouching Boy, carved around 1530 to 1534, to the ground floor, alongside fourteen architectural drawings by Michelangelo hung through the building, which apartment guests could visit at any hour. The rooftop has changed hands several times since: Caviar Kaspia opened it in 2018, and in April 2026 Retrobottega moved in after closing its ten-year-old dining rooms off Via della Stelletta.
The setting
Via del Velabro runs through the Velabro, the low ground between the Palatine, the Capitoline and the Tiber where the city's own founding stories are set and where Rome later ran the Forum Boarium, its cattle market. The Arch of Janus stands directly in front of the door, the ninth-century church of San Giorgio al Velabro beside it, and the round Temple of Hercules Victor and the Temple of Portunus are a minute further on, along with Santa Maria in Cosmedin and the Bocca della Verita in its portico. The Palatine rises behind the building and the Circus Maximus is the closest open space; Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum are both short walks. For decades this was one of the least tended corners of the historic centre despite the address, which is part of what drew Alda Fendi to it.
Restaurants and bars
- Gallery restaurant — Restaurant
Experiences
- Guided tours of Rome led by a local expert — Exclusive guided tours led by a local expert exploring the city's hidden gems, its history and culture from a personalized perspective.
- Private chef dinner in the apartment — A private dinner prepared by a talented chef, served back at the apartment after a day out.
Amenities
- Exclusive guided tours led by a local expert
- Private dinner prepared by a chef in the apartment
Open Rhinoceros in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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