What Colonna means in English: a column, by way of a castle
Colonna is the Italian word for column, and that is the answer most people are given. It is true and it is incomplete, because the family did not name itself after a column. It named itself after a place. Peter de Columna took the name from Columna Castle at Colonna, in the Alban Hills southeast of Rome — so the family is named after a castle, and the castle was named after a column. The middle step is the whole answer, and it is the part that gets left out.
Why the place matters more than the word
Read it as “the column family” and you get a heraldic flourish. Read it as “the family from Colonna” and you get an address: a castle in the hills southeast of the city, held by people who later came down into Rome and built on the ground between the Quirinal and the road to the Capitol, where the palace still stands. The name is a piece of geography that stopped being geography.
Colonna is a real place southeast of Rome rather than a metaphor, which is why the short answer survives so well: it is not wrong, it is only the last step of three.
Where the documented line starts, and where the legend does
The first Colonna you can follow in the record is Pietro Colonna, who lived from about 1078 to 1108 and was a son of Gregory III, Count of Tusculum. Everything from him forward is traceable. Everything before him is not: the family’s claimed descent from the Julio-Claudians is described in the sources as lost in the mists of time, which is a polite way of saying nobody can show their working. This site prints the documented line and names the legend as a legend, rather than blurring the two into one long sentence.
What the name has been attached to since
Enough that the word stopped needing a gloss in Rome. Oddone Colonna was elected pope on 14 November 1417 and reigned as Martin V until 20 February 1431; his election ended the Western Schism. The family has held the title Prince of Paliano from 1556 to the present day. It held the office of Prince Assistant to the Papal Throne from 1514 until it was abolished in 2018 — five hundred and four years, ending inside living memory.
And the palace itself has been theirs since the 1200s, its first section dating to the 13th century. English Wikipedia puts the family’s tenure at over twenty generations. Those two statements are cited from different places and they are not the same claim — a century count and a generation count answer different questions — so this site prints whichever it is citing and never converts one into the other. The family page takes both apart properly, and says who heads the line now.
So how do you answer the question?
If somebody asks you at the ticket desk, “column” will do. If you want the answer that is actually true, it is this: Colonna is a place in the Alban Hills, the castle there was named for a column, the family was named for the castle, and that name has been on the same building in Rome since the 1200s. The building that name is on opens two mornings a week — visiting has the hours, and Friday or Saturday has the choice that actually decides your morning.
Frequently asked questions
What does Colonna mean in English?
Column. But the family took the name from a place rather than from the object: Peter de Columna was named for Columna Castle at Colonna, in the Alban Hills southeast of Rome. The family is named after a castle that was named after a column.
Where did the Colonna family originate?
At Colonna, in the Alban Hills southeast of Rome. The documented line begins with Pietro Colonna, who lived from about 1078 to 1108 and was a son of Gregory III, Count of Tusculum.
Is the Colonna family descended from the Romans?
The claim exists and cannot be checked. Descent from the Julio-Claudians is described as lost in the mists of time even by sources friendly to the family, so this site names it as a claim and starts the documented line where the documents do.
Was there a Colonna pope?
Yes. Oddone Colonna was elected on 14 November 1417 and reigned as Martin V until 20 February 1431. His election ended the Western Schism.