The Keats-Shelley Memorial House (Piazza di Spagna 26, Rome, the building at the bottom-right corner of the Spanish Steps, the piano nobile apartment on the second floor of the house where the English Romantic poet John Keats died on February 23, 1821, at the age of 25, from the tuberculosis that his physician Joseph Severn had diagnosed as fatal when they arrived in Rome in November 1820 hoping that the warmer Italian climate would arrest the disease progression) is the most specifically literary museum in Rome and one of the most intimate literary museums in the world: the small apartment (three rooms, the sitting room, the bedroom where Keats died, and the study) preserved and furnished to approximate the appearance of 1820-1821, with the specific objects that Severn and Keats brought to Rome, the drawing that Severn made of Keats on his deathbed (February 28, 1821, the most emotionally direct image of a dying Romantic poet in existence), and the view from the bedroom window (the Spanish Steps visible through the window, the specific view that Keats watched from his bed in the final months, the flower sellers and the tourists on the steps identical in their general activity to the flower sellers and tourists visible from the same window in 2026).
The Keats-Shelley Memorial House collection (the literary archive beyond the Keats bedroom, the library and manuscript collection got by the museum since its founding in 1906, including letters and manuscripts by Keats, Shelley, Byron, and Leigh Hunt, and the specific objects that the Romantic-era Grand Tour left as physical traces in Rome): the Byron lock of hair (in the specific locket that Byron's friend had made, the hair cut from Byron's head by a devoted admirer and preserved in the sentimental locket that the Romantic era made a standard form of intimate memorabilia) is the most discussed single object in the collection.
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Keats-Shelley Memorial House: Museum and Visit
The Keats Bedroom
The Keats bedroom (the specific room where Keats died, the small room with the fireplace and the window overlooking the Spanish Steps, whose flower-shaped ceiling decoration Keats reportedly contemplated in his final weeks, telling Severn that he could feel the flowers growing over him) is the primary Keats-Shelley Memorial House experience: the room is preserved without reproduction furniture or extensive interpretation, the physical space, the proportions, the window, and the specific atmosphere of a room that has been maintained in continuous consciousness of its literary significance since Keats's death. The museum (open Monday-Saturday 10:00-13:00 and 14:00-18:00. Admission approximately €5) is small enough to be seen in 45-60 minutes and significant enough to require careful attention.
The Literary Collection
The Keats-Shelley Memorial House library (the ground floor library accessible to researchers by appointment, the collection of Romantic-era manuscripts and letters that the museum has accumulated since its 1906 founding as a memorial institution, including the Keats letters from Rome, the Shelley manuscripts, and the extensive Byron correspondence) is accessible to scholars through the museum's research program. The permanent exhibition (the display cases with the specific objects, the Keats death mask made by Severn hours after the death, the specific Keats and Shelley first editions, and the Byron hair locket) is accessible to all visitors during the standard opening hours.
Q&A: Keats-Shelley Memorial House
Where is Keats buried in Rome?
Keats is buried in the Cimitero Acattolico (the Non-Catholic Cemetery, Via Caio Cestio 6, Testaccio, the Protestant and non-Catholic cemetery adjacent to the Piramide di Caio Cestio, open Monday-Saturday 9:00-17:00 and Sunday 9:00-13:00): the grave is marked with the specific epitaph that Keats composed before his death, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water", refusing to have his name on the stone because he believed his poetry wouldn't survive him. Shelley's ashes (Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezia in 1822, his body was cremated on the beach, and his ashes brought to Rome) are also in the same cemetery. The Cimitero Acattolico visit (30 minutes, free admission with suggested donation) completes the Rome Romantic poet circuit from the Keats-Shelley Memorial House to the graves.
Internal Links
- Piazza di Spagna: Scalinata e Musei Nascosti
- Roma Letteraria: Il Keats-Shelley in Inverno
- Fotografare la Stanza di Keats: Intimità e Luce
- Grand Tour Romantico: Roma attraverso gli Inglesi
- Roma dei Poeti: I Luoghi dei Romantici Inglesi
- Musei Minori Roma: Il Keats-Shelley e i Tesori Nascosti
- Roma e il Romanticismo: Dal Grand Tour alla Modernità
