Palazzo Secco-Pastore: A Fortified Renaissance Palace in Italy
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page7 sections
History
Construction and the Secco family
Palazzo Secco-Pastore is a fortified palace in San Martino Gusnago, a hamlet of Ceresara in Italy. Built in the second half of the fifteenth century for Francesco Secco, a professional military commander, it was designed by the architect Luca Fancelli as a medieval fortified residence.
Francesco Secco was a friend and confidant of Ludovico III Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua. In 1451, Secco married Caterina, Ludovico’s illegitimate daughter. Their daughter Paola later married Marsilio Torelli, Count of Montechiarugolo, connecting the family to another noble lineage.
Gonzaga conflicts and changing ownership
When Federico I Gonzaga succeeded Ludovico in 1478, he gave the palace to Eusebio Malatesta, who was an enemy of Francesco Secco. On 15 June 1491, the building hosted an elaborate gathering attended by Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. Francesco II used the occasion in an effort to reconcile with Secco.
Later that year, Secco secretly approached Lorenzo de’ Medici with the intention of entering his service. Francesco Gonzaga then confiscated Secco’s possessions, including the palace. The property was sold to Caterina Pico, the wife of Rodolfo Gonzaga.
Later owners
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the property passed under Aloisio Gonzaga to the Gonzaga branch of Castel Goffredo. In the late sixteenth century, Orazio Gonzaga, Aloisio’s third son, transferred it to the Furga family. The palace subsequently belonged to the Orsini, nobles of Bracciano.
The Pastore family acquired the property at the end of the eighteenth century and changed its form by adding two long wings to the original central core. Cesare Pastore, a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, died in the palace in 1889.
Remains
Fortified palace structure
The surviving building is organized around a medieval central core, with two long wings extending from it. These additions, made by the Pastore family at the end of the eighteenth century, distinguish the later layout from the original palace.
The facade preserves a distinctive blind crenellation, a decorative pattern of battlements without open defensive gaps. This feature is associated with Luca Fancelli’s design and gives the exterior its fortified architectural character.
Painted wooden panels
One room contains a series of approximately 44 square wooden panels, each measuring about 45.7 to 46.4 centimeters on a side. Painted in tempera, a technique using pigment bound with a water-based medium traditionally including egg, they were made between 1500 and 1515 by an anonymous Lombard painter influenced by the Milanese Renaissance artist Bramantino.
The panels were set between the ceiling beams and the upper sections of the walls. Six are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, while twelve belong to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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