Palazzo Arnaboldi Gazzaniga: An Eighteenth-Century Palace in Pavia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.9
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Milan, Habsburg, Italian
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page11 sections
History
Palazzo Arnaboldi Gazzaniga is a palace in Pavia, Italy, built around 1769 by the marquises Siro and Francesco Corti in the eighteenth-century architectural tradition, partly through the remodeling and incorporation of medieval buildings. It occupies an urban block associated with the parish of San Michele and later became the residence and enlarged family complex of the Arnaboldi Gazzaniga family.
The Corti and Gambarana Families
At least from the fifteenth century, the Pavia-based Corti family owned several palaces and houses within the block. Around 1769, Siro and Francesco Corti combined this earlier property with a new palace project. In 1771, Siro Corti sold several buildings in the block to Count Francesco Gambarana, who transformed them into Palazzo Gambarana. The remaining Corti complex passed to the Pisani Dossi family around 1820.
The Arnaboldi Expansion
The Arnaboldi family acquired the remaining complex in 1872. Originally from Milan, the family moved to Pavia during the nineteenth century and held important public offices in the city. Bernardo Arnaboldi served as mayor of Pavia and later became a deputy and senator.
A royal decree, a formal legal act issued by the monarch, reconfirmed Bernardo Arnaboldi’s title of Count of Pirocco in 1882. The title had originally been granted in 1831 by Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia from 1831 to 1849, to the lawyer Stefano Pompeo Gazzaniga, Bernardo’s maternal great-uncle. Bernardo subsequently adopted the surname Arnaboldi Gazzaniga.
In 1875, the family commissioned the architect Ercole Balossi to enlarge the complex and create a large garden at its center. This later development included the demolition of the building that had faced Via San Michele and closed the garden on its eastern side. The garden was enlarged and enclosed with an iron fence. The palace remains in use.
Remains
Facades and Medieval Elements
Main Facade
The palace stands along the narrow Via della Rocchetta, with additional fronts on Via Capsoni, Corso Garibaldi, and the street leading toward San Michele. Its main facade is organized by pilasters, shallow wall-attached supports resembling columns, which run through the full height of the elevation. They divide the facade into sections, each containing three floors. The floors have broadly similar visual importance, although the first floor is taller. Medallions, the portal on Via della Rocchetta, and the balcony balustrade use the refined eighteenth-century barocchetto style, a lighter decorative development of the Baroque.
Via Capsoni Front
The facade along Via Capsoni preserves traces of seventeenth-century frescoes and Gothic two-light windows. These bifora windows are divided into two openings by a central column or mullion, retaining visible evidence of earlier architectural phases within the later palace complex.
Garden and San Michele Fronts
The facade facing the garden and the facade along the street leading toward San Michele use Neo-Medieval forms, meaning later designs that revive medieval architectural features. Their details include an octagonal corner tower, terracotta two-light windows, and small columns carrying Neo-Romanesque capitals.
Courtyard and Other Elevations
Central Courtyard
The courtyard is square and has porticoes on three sides supported by granite columns. Their facades repeat motifs from the main facade, extending the palace’s external decorative language into the central space.
Corso Garibaldi Front
The elevation along Corso Garibaldi is architecturally less distinctive than the other documented fronts, while forming part of the palace’s extended street-facing complex.
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