Palazzo Spada & Borromini's Perspective

A small but extraordinary art collection housed in a Renaissance palazzo, with the real showstopper hidden in a courtyard corridor. Baroque architect Francesco Borromini created a forced-perspective colonnade that appears to stretch 37 metres but is actually just 9 metres long, with a statue at the end that looks life-sized but is knee-height. The mathematical trick uses shrinking columns, a rising floor, and a lowering ceiling. The gallery itself holds works by Titian, Guercino, and Artemisia Gentileschi. You can see the whole collection in under an hour, and it is rarely crowded.