The Bramante Cloister is an extraordinary example of Renaissance architecture. The work was created in the early 16th century by the architect Donato Bramante and is part of the complex that also includes the adjacent Church of Santa Maria della Pace. Bramante built the cloister and the convent, while the church is the work of the architect Baccio Pontelli.
The cloister's architecture is typical of the Renaissance and draws inspiration from classicism, radically reaffirmed by Bramante, who exalts the structural elements while stripping them of any decoration.

Bramante designed a square courtyard, divided into two levels with the same number of arches on each side. On the first level is a large portico with four arches on each side and Ionic pillars, while on the second level is a Composite-style loggia with Corinthian pillars and columns. The perceived harmony is absolute thanks to Bramante's ability to organize stylistically diverse elements into a perfect unity, integrated with absolute naturalness.

In 1656, Pietro da Cortona created the church's splendid convex façade at the request of Pope Alexander VII Chigi. On the ground floor, pairs of columns support the characteristic semicircular portico, above which runs an inscription that reads: "SUSPICIANT MONTES PACEM POPULO ET COLLES IUSTITIAM," or "May the mountains bring peace to the people and the hills justice."

The dome was added only in 1524 based on a design by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and is decorated with stuccoes by Pietro da Cortona and paintings by Baldassarre Peruzzi and Carlo Maratta.
The interior has a single nave and houses the beautiful Chigi Chapel, built by order of the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi based on a design by Raphael Sanzio, who also created the extraordinary fresco depicting Sibyls and Angels, over six meters wide, around 1515. This masterpiece can be admired from the Hall of the Sibyls, on the first floor of the Cloister.

The church was named Santa Maria della Pace to commemorate the Peace of Bagnolo, the agreement that ended the War of Ferrara between the Republic of Venice and the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole d'Este.
Since 1996, various cultural activities have been held in the building, while the cloister hosts temporary art exhibitions.