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Photos by Massimo Listri.

Mantua's Palazzo Ducale is the largest architectural museum complex in Italy and among the most extensive courtyards dating back to the Renaissance in Europe.

With a complexity comparable to the Vatican State Museums, Palazzo Ducale is today the protagonist and witness of the great Italian beauty.

The Palace complex occupies an area of about 34,000 square meters, a real city in the city, with its own squares, streets, corridors that connect the various buildings as if they were "covered internal streets", churches, chapels, gardens, fruit of seven hundred years of history.

It's so immense, that some frescoes were found only after 400 centuries.

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One of the most beautiful buildings on the Grand Canal, 15th-century Ca’ d’Oro's lacy arcaded Gothic facade is resplendent even without the original gold-leaf details that gave the palace its name (Golden House).

The palace was built between 1428 and 1430.

Bartolomeo and Giovanni Bon are credited with the decoration for the Ca' d’Oro, built for Marin Contarini, of the prominent Contarini family. The building borrows its style from the Palazzo Ducale (the palace of the elected ruler of Venice), albeit on a smaller scale, but what it loses in size it makes up for in ornamentation. You can’t get much more opulent than a golden house! Even with the gold leaf no longer in place, it is still possible to get a good sense of the richness of this gem of a building.

The principal façade of Ca' d'Oro facing onto the Grand Canal is built in the Bon's Venetian floral Gothic style. Other nearby buildings in this style are Palazzo Barbaro and the Palazzo Giustinian. This linear style favoured by the Venetian architects was not totally superseded by the Baroque one until the end of the 16th century. On the ground floor, a recessed colonnaded loggia gives access to the entrance hall (portego de mezo) directly from the canal. Above this colonnade is the enclosed balcony of the principal salon on the piano nobile. The columns and arches of this balcony have capitals which in turn support a row of quatrefoil windows; above this balcony is another enclosed balcony or loggia of a similar yet lighter design. The palace has (like other similar buildings in Venice) a small inner courtyard.

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Cantina Antinori

In Chianti Classico, halfway between Florence and Siena, a noble family cultivates a centuries-old tradition that links the life of the community to wine production. The design of the Antinori Winery is the result of a close link between landscape and man-made territory, which led the architects of Archea studio to imagine a hybrid architecture that would live in symbiosis with the natural environment and the work of man.

Among the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside are the vineyards of Marchesi Antinori that have been producing fine wines here for centuries, a pride of the territory and the family. Guided by its founder Piero Antinori and his daughters Albiera, Allegra and Alessai, the Marquises Antinori have become new patrons.

In order to preserve the memory of the family and to show gratitude to the land of Chianti Classico, the Antinori family imagined to bring back to the Florentine countryside the location of their winemaking activity and wanted this to become a recognizable landmark integrated into the territory, referring to the archetype of the cathedral, the factory, the farm and the farmhouse. The operational headquarters of the Cantine Antinori were to be a multifunctional building, which housed offices and workplaces, but also external visitors, with the aim of making them part of the history of the family and the products of the land.

Relying on the sensitivity and architectural research of Marco Casamonti and Archea Associati, this client has expressly requested a container that is an expression of its content, work, passion, tradition and culture, immersed in the rural landscape in which these elements are deeply rooted.

Archea's conceptual response was not merely a building resting on the ground, a façade that stands out against its profile on the hill, but an underground architecture.

The Antinori Winery is first of all a geomorphological experiment: almost invisible from the outside, the building reveals itself through two cuts in the earth, two horizontal slits (signs inspired by Lucio Fontana's works) that identify the terraces that have always characterized the landscape cultivated with vines. Beneath this garden roof, all the work environments of the factory and recreational areas are developed.

Cantina Antinori is the result of 7 years of work on an ambitious project that has made low environmental impact and high energy saving its objectives together with a complex functional program and respect for the natural landscape. In the multi-functional building, together with the spaces for the production of wine, there are offices, shops, a restaurant, tasting areas, an auditorium, an exhibition area to get to know the products and cultural events organized within the structure, and finally a visitable area for the understanding of architecture.

It is a generous architecture that builds and enhances the landscape, has been able to understand the identity of places and the history of an anthropized territory through an ethical management of design choices and construction methods thanks to the openness and responsibility of architects and clients.

Source: "Cantine Antinori: il progetto ipogeo di Archea" - by Arch. Anellina Chirico

link: https://www.architetturaecosostenibile.it/architettura/progetti/in-italia/cantine-antinori-progetto-archea-802/

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The Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo (also called the Palazzo Contarini Minelli dal Bovolo) is a small palazzo in Venice, Italy, best known for its external multi-arch spiral staircase known as the Scala Contarini del Bovolo (literally, "of the snail"). The palazzo is located in a small, less-travelled calle (street) near Campo Manin, about half-way between Campo San Bartolo, at the foot of the Rialto, and Campo Santo Stefano. The staircase leads to an arcade, providing an impressive view of the city roof-tops. The palazzo was designed and built in its current form in the 15th century by the architect Giovanni Candi as one of the city residences of the Contarini family. Giorgio Spavento is believed to have been responsible for the addition of the grand spiral staircase on the exterior in 1499. The property is developed widely in height above the average of the Venetian palaces. This required great technical skills by manufacturers because the property was completely perforated by arches and lodges. In addition there was the need to adapt to an existing building, as well as the problem of unstable foundations due to the peculiarities of the Venetian subsoil. Another obstacle resulted from the large range of construction, which greatly increased static and architectural difficulties. The reference to the Tower of Pisa is immediate and we can compare that the technique used does not indicate the Renaissance conscience, but it is distinguished by an original reinterpretation of classicism. The staircase is the finest example of the neo- Byzantine Venice: here it was established a New Renaissance, in contrast to the taste of Lombards; Tuscans and Roman trends; and the model of Byzantine Ravenna buildings. The Scala Contarini del Bovolo is composed of two sections linked together, a loggia and a cylindrical tower. The gallery is open to the outside with large Renaissance arches, three per floor and decreasing height so that those on the top floor prove half of those on the ground floor. This trick of perspective gives the work a greater height. The peculiarity of the staircase is to make the rest of the ground floor arches on square pillars instead of columns. The cylindrical tower has 26 meters high and has a diameter of 4.70 meters. It sets on a central pillar around which are superimposed 80 monolithic steps that ascend counterclockwise. The column ends on the top floor with a lookout with decorative Istrian stone. The steps have a trapezoidal shape and end with a ring that slips in the central pin; a layer of molten lead evens the contact surfaces between the various elements. The first flight of stairs rises straight and rests on arches of different sizes and is contained in the first lodge. The capitals are characterized by a very original cut: the four spirals are connected as many acanthus leaves very simple and with little relief. A small flight of stairs rebuilt in 800 allows access to the lookout. The wooden roof that is located inside the dome is 1874. Originally it had a lower frame and tiles. It is important to point out the interior of the helical staircase, the alternation of empty and full of taste, typical Venetian and the contrast between the perforated facing the courtyard and the brick facing of the building. The contrast is given by the surface of the red ��� brown brick Gothic ancestry and the white of the ribs in Istrian stone. The spiral staircase most impressive and valuable in Venice is a perfect synthesis of different styles: Renaissance (for the use of some elements such as the capitals), Gothic (for the construction technique) and Venetian-Byzantine (the form). (Source: http://www.scalacontarinidelbovolo.com/) The Palazzo del Bovolo was chosen by Orson Welles as one of the main locations (Brabantio's house) for his 1952 adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, and the staircase is prominently featured in the film. The staircase was closed to the public for restoration work which began in August 2015 but is now open.

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Castello del Catajo is a patrician house near the town of Battaglia Term, province of Padua, northeastern Italy and is easily and quickly reachable from Padova and Venice. Where does the name Catajo come from? It owes its name to the location where it stands: “Ca’ Del Tajo” The monumental building was built in only three years from 1570 to 1573 by Pio Enea degli Obizzi. Its purpose stands to celebrate the glory of the Obizzi family, mercenary military captains who moved to Italy following the Emperor Arrigo II. The castle, of overshadowing size, is surrounded by a number of parks, specifically the “Parco delle Delizie”. The Catajo has always fascinated visitors year round with its fascinating characteristics: the name, the history, and the legends based on it. The building is majestic, from the entrance with a long boulevard; you enter the “Giardini Giardini” also known as the Courtyard of the Giants. The Obizzi family used this space for theatrical performances, tournaments and naval battles. Among all the other various fountains of the villa, the most spectacular is the Elephant Fountain. The castle includes 350 rooms, some of which include frescoes by Giovanni Battista Zelotti. In 1571, he decorated the inside walls with beautiful paintings depicting the deeds of his family, creating one of the most beautiful frescoes of Venetian villas. The noble floor serves to be one of the most important examples of an indigenous painting in northern Italy by Zelotti. The large hall at the end end depicts the family tree of the Obizzi family. The ceiling is represented by three forms of government “La Democrzia” (Rome), “The Aristocracy” (Venice), and “The Monarchy” (Catholic Religion). Inside the castle there is also a neo-gothic chapel built in 1838, made of painted wood of glowing colors and gildings. From the inside of the large living room, there is easy access to the terraces from which there is a beautiful view of the Euganean Hills and various gardens.

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The Altemps Palace is one of the most interesting examples of Renaissance architecture in Rome. The building was started by Girolamo Riario in 1477 in an area that in antiquity was dedicated to the administration of imported marble, ​probably with a temple of Apollo nearby. In the fifteenth century the Altemps palace begins to be​come as we know it today, ​under the domain of several personalities who later followed in time. The palace was purchased in 1568 by Austrian Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps. The "black" history of the family dates back to these years: the natural son of Marco Sittico, Roberto, was accused of adultery and beheaded at the age of 20, in 1586, precisely by Pope Sixtus V, for having married one of the Orsini, his sworn enemies. A few pope later, Clement VIII Aldobrandini, in 1604, gave the remains of Pope Aniceto to the family to enrich its private chapel, but in memory of the persecution, his son Giovanni Angelo Altemps, second duke of Gallese, had a large fresco painted in the same chapel of the palace, in 1617, reproducing the decapitation of his father. It was Giovanni Angelo who made the first theatre (later known as the Goldoni Theatre) built in the palace. And it was here that the Academy of Arcadia was founded in 1690. In the eighteenth century the palace was rented as a French diplomatic seat by Cardinal Melchior de Polignac and was the seat of great prestige and luxury; among other things​,​ Metastasio performed there and also Mozart played there, during his Roman stay. Since 1997 it has been one of the four seats of the National Roman Museum which, in 2013 was the twenty-first most visited Italian state site in Italy.

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"Diamonds are a girl's best friend​!​" It's true, just as much as this Diamond's Palace in Ferrara will make you completely fall in love. Named for the unusual shape of the over 8,500 marble blocks on the façade, Palazzo dei Diamanti (meaning Diamond's Palace) is one of the most famous Renaissance buildings in the world. Count Sigismondo d’Este, brother of Duke Ercole I d'Este commissioned the palazzo, choosing Biagio Rossetti as his architect. Construction began in 1493, with the palazzo located in the ideal centre of the so-called "Addizione Erculea", one of the most important and beautiful examples of Renaissance city planning. The palazzo was acquired by the city of Ferrara in 1832. On the ground floor are living quarters and spaces where the major temporary exhibitions organized by Ferrara Arte and the Gallerie d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Ferrara are held, while the first floor hosts the collections of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara. (Source: http://www.palazzodiamanti.it)

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Palazzo Reale di Torino, or the Royal Palace of Turin, is the first and most important of the Savoy residences in Piedmont. It is located in the heart of the city and represents the heart of the Savoy Court, a symbol of power of the dynasty.

The palace, designed for the royal residence, was designed between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century by Ascanio Vittozzi and later entrusted to Carlo di Castellamonte. The façade has a central part, alongside two tall wings. The rooms on the grand piano are decorated with allegorical images that celebrate the Royal Dynasty, made by the hands of different artists.

The palace is part of a complex of buildings in the city center, one of the most ancient and rich in Turin charm. Originally, the building was used as a bishop’s palace, at least in the 16th century, which makes it a far more remote foundation.

“The inside of the royal palace is amazed: I would not know so far anything else in the richness and vivacity of her tapestries, which look painted. The beautiful floors, the porcelain, the paintings of each school, everything is precious: you would not see a corner, door or window, that he is deprived of it.”

–Count Girolamo Orti’s first impression of the interiors of the Royal Palace

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Palazzo Biscari, the most important private palace in Catania, is unique in terms of structure, outlay and decoration. The Paterno Castello family, the Princes of Biscari, built the palace in the late 17th century. After the earthquake of 1693 destroyed nearly the entire city, the family rebuilt the new palace on the ramparts of the 15th century walls of Catania.

In the beginning of the 1700’s, the building had the shape of a trapezoid centered upon a large courtyard, which one could access through a richly decorated doorway on top of which stood the four-quartered arms of nobility. From the sea, the palace held a view of decorated balconies and flowered pilasters. Decorative vestments, putti and telamones emerge from the black lavic base.

The airy gallery divided among twin columns, builds itself on the bank of walls. Without straining toward a cold, formal composition, the architect, Battaglia, demonstrates the genuineness, if not the vigor, of his classical inclinations.

The palace reached its greatest splendor under Price Ignazio V, an eclectic man, a man passionate about art, literature, and archeology, and one of the most significant figures in the cultural life of Catania in the mid 1700’s who was very interested in the cultural progress of the city.

Today, the central courtyard of the palace is surrounded by constructions of various epochs and is dominated by the central double spiral staircase, which leads into the most important part of the edifice.

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Palazzo Corsini is a Roman building built in the lower part of the great Villa Corsini. The grandchildren of Sisto IV of the Oak built the palazzo. In the 17th century, the palace had been inhabited by Cristina of Sweden, who would host the first meetings of what would become the Academy of the Archidocese in the garden.

In 1736, Florentine Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, grandson of Clement XII, bought the building and the garden. The small suburban villa was transformed into a real palace, doubling the extension of the façade and overstating it to the remarkable width with the addition of ten giant piles, more dense at the central axis. More lively is the rear façade, facing the vast gardens, with three planks, of which the central one occupied by the monumental staircase, one of the most beautiful in Rome, is particularly protruding. The staircase, with its large windows, also acts as a panoramic viewpoint over the gardens, sloping on the Gianicolo hill.

During the occupation of Rome, the palace hosted Giuseppe Bonaparte, brother of the Emperor.

In 1856, most of the gardens on the Gianicolo were joined to the neighboring Villa Doria Pamphilj. The palace was sold to the Italian government in 1883, giving the library and gallery. The palace then became the seat of the offices and the library of the Royal Academy of the Lincei and of the Gallery of Ancient Art, with the opportunity to welcome the Corsini collections.

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The Palazzo Dario is a palace located between the Palazzo Barbaro Wolkoff and the narrow Rio delle Torreselle on the Grand Canal in the city of Venice. The palace was built in the floral Venetian Gothic style and was renovated with Renaissance-style. The landside of Palazzo Dario rises on a small square shaded by tress, the Campiello Barbaro, named in honor of the patrician Barbaro family who lived there. The English art critic John Ruskin was particularly entranced with and wrote about the palace’s Gothic marble-encrusted oculi. The corner treatments of the palace resemble those found in the Palazzo Priuli a San Severo. The rear façade of the palace on the Campiello Barbaro has Gothic arches of the fifth order. A large project of renovation was undertaken at the end of the 19th century, when the palace belonged to the Countess de la Baume-Pluvinel, a French aristocrat and writer under the name of “Laurent Evrard.” The Countess is responsible for the staircase, the external chimneys, the majolica stoves, and the fine carvings in the dining rooms on the second floor, looking down to the garden, as well as a great deal of stabilization and replacement of marble on the façade. In 1908, the painter, Claude Monet, created impressionist depictions of Palazzo Dario. Today, the building is private and not normally open to the public. www.leggiero.eu

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Villa Pisani is one of the most famous examples of Venetian villas of the Brenta Rivera. The name, Villa Pisani, is shared by a number of villas, all commissioned by the Patrician Pisani family of Venice. The history of the Villa Pisani began in the early 18th century by the most prominent member of the Pisani family. While the initial models of the palace still exist, Francesco Maria Preti ultimately completed the main building design. The building has 114 rooms, in honor of its owner, the 114th Doge of Venice, Alvise Pisani. The building was bought by Napoleon in 1807 and eventually was partially restructured to host the first meeting of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in 1934. The villa is a part of a series of villas, which the Venetian noble families and merchants built to use as pleasure houses and an agriculture enterprise, but Villa Pisani was for a different purpose. The façade of the oversized palace, which appears to command the site, was primarily built as the family’s demonstration of power after Alvise Pisani was elected doge in 1735. The broad façade is topped with statuary, and presents an exuberantly decorated center entrance with monumental columns shouldered by caryatids. It shelters a large complex with two inner courts and acres of gardens, stables and a maze. The remains of its nearly 100 rooms are now empty, still containing several rooms with furniture of the 18th and 19th century.

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The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace in Florence. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence.

The palace was designed by Michelozzi di Bartolomeo for Cosimo de’ Medici, head of the Medici banking family and was built between 1444 and 1484. The palace is well known for its stone masonry, which includes architectural elements of rustication and ashlar.

The tripartite elevation used expresses the Renaissance spirit of rationality, order, and classicism on human scale. This tripartite division is emphasized by horizontal stringcourses that divide the building into stories of decreasing height. The transition from the rusticated masonry of the ground floor to the more delicately refined stonework of the third floor makes the building seem lighter and taller as the eye moves upward to the massive cornice that caps and clearly defines the building’s outline.

The building reflects the accumulated wealth of the Medici family. After her stay, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, left a letter describing the palazzo:

“…a house that is – as much in the handsomeness of the ceilings, the height of the walls, smooth finish of the entrances and windows, number of chambers and salons, elegance of the studies, worth of the books, neatness and gracefulness of the gardens, as it is in the tapestry decorations, cassoni of inestimable workmanship and value, nobles structures, designs of infinite kinds, as well of priceless silver – the best I may ever have seen…”

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Una piacevole intervista in compagnia di Alessandra Salimbene che ringrazio per aver parlato dei temi a me più a cuore. Imprenditoria, creatività, lavoro, formazione professionale, partners e, ovviamente, del blog qui su Tumblr: la Grande Bellezza Immobiliare Italiana.

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#palazzobuondelmonti #fresco #florence #Leggierorealestate #lagrandebellezzadegliimmobiliitaliani (presso Via delle Terme)

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Photo: Massimo Listri The Royal Palace of Caserta is the Italian Versailles, the most beautiful, majestic and glittering royal palace in the world. It was the sumptuous residence of the Bourbon family in Naples and is one of the most visited national sites and it’s declared a World Heritage Site. Visiting the Royal Palace of Caserta is like returning to a wonderful but always topical past, among rooms and interiors of extraordinary value, an infinite park and an English garden of rare beauty. How many of you know about the Palace of Caserta? The architect After the refusal for health reasons of Nicola Salvi, creator of the Trevi fountain in Rome, the commission was entrusted to the talented Neapolitan architect of Dutch origin Luigi Vanvitelli, who was working on the restoration of the Basilica of Loreto. Dead in 1773, Vanvitelli could not see his work completed, the works of which were to be completed by his son Carlo. The construction The construction works started in 1752 and lasted almost a century, with a total expenditure of 8,800,000 ducats ca.: today they would be more than 300 billion euros. For the heaviest jobs, North African workers, the so-called barbarians, were used. The Royal Palace of Caserta has a total area of 47,000 square meters, making it by far the largest royal residence on the planet. The rooms There are over 1200 rooms that make up the Royal Palace of Caserta. At night the show is guaranteed by the lights that filter through the windows, 1742 in total and all arranged according to a strict order. The English Garden The imposing 41 km-long Carolino Aqueduct was built in the same period as the Royal Palace to ensure that the new residence, park and fountains have the necessary water supply. A lot of water was really needed for this, especially to feed the fountains, pools, fishmongers and watercourses of the large park, divided into two large blocks: the Italian garden and the English garden, which was entrusted to the genius of the German botanist John Andreas Graefer. Both were adorned with thousands of plants from every corner of the globe. A heavenly corner to the extreme ramifications of the English Garden and the Royal Palace of Caserta is the Bathroom of Venus, a sort of oasis of rare beauty in a secluded and enchanted place, where a statue of the goddess of beauty peeps out among the plants, before a temple in tholos. It was Queen Maria Carolina who commissioned the realization of the Bath, which according to some scholars could contain esoteric and Masonic references. The bidet One of the most famous anecdotes linked to the Royal Palace of Caserta is related to the cataloguing of objects by Piedmont officials after the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which took place in 1861. In front of an object never seen (and used) before, a Savoy officer noted:"Strange unknown object in the shape of a guitar". It was the bidet. Star Wars In the Reggia di Caserta some scenes of two films in the Star Wars saga were shot: Episode I - The Ghost Threat of 1999 and Episode II - The Clone Attack of 2002. In particular, the interiors of the Bourbon Royal Palace are served as a setting for the palace of the Queen of Naboo, a fantastic planet rich in green areas and elegant buildings. Source: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/it/lifestyle/viaggi/a14105482/reggia-di-caserta-curiosita/