The Palazzo della Cancellaria is the most important - and certainly the most imposing - palace built in Rome during the late fifteenth century. It was commissioned by Cardinal Raffaello Riario and was designed before 1489, the façade probably completed by 1495, the entire palace completed c. 1511-13. When Cardinal Riario was discovered to have participated in a plot against Pope Leo X in 1516 he was forced to deed the palace to the papacy as part of his fine. The building was then used as offices for the papal chancellery, thus giving it its current name. The architect of the palace is unknown, the traditional attribution to Bramante and Andrea Bregno have been largely discredited, though many still attribute it to Bramante.The palace's finely dressed stone courses and rhythmic alternation of windows and pilasters recall Alberti's Ruccelai Palace and the papal palace in Pienza. The slightly projecting bays at the ends help to give a sense of completion to the 92-meter façade. The great size, regular composition, and classicising decoration of this building, as well as its domination over the urban landscape, its creation of a piazza on its entrance façade, and its presence on the papal processional route, all made it a model for later Roman palaces.