Doge's Palace, Genoa, Italy - SpottingHistory.com

The Doge's Palace was once the home of the Doges of Genoa. It is now a museum and a centre for cultural events and arts exhibitions. It is situated in the heart of the city, with two different entrances and façades, the main one on Piazza Matteotti, and the second one on Piazza De Ferrari.

The first parts of the Palace were built between 1251 and 1275, during the flourishing period of the Republican history of Genoa, while the Torre Grimaldina (also named 'Torre del Popolo') was completed in 1539.

The palace originated from the acquisition by the commune of Genoa of houses of the Doria between San Matteo and San Lorenzo churches (1291), after which the construction of an annexed new building was started. To this, in 1294, a tower of the Fieschi family was added. The palace was restored in the 1590s by Andrea Ceresola. Around 1655, the Ducal Chapel was frescoed by Giovanni Battista Carlone and Domenico Fiasella. In 1777, it was subject to a fire, and was subsequently rebuilt in Neoclassicist style by Simone Cantoni.

On the main floor, the so-called Piano Nobile, are the frescoed halls of the Maggior and Minor Consiglio, where many public events take place.

References:

Wikipedia

Palaces, manors and town halls in Italy

User Reviews

Adrian (3 months ago)
Great exhibitions. A regular stop when I come to Genova

Roger Seganti (3 months ago)
Very nice building, in the center of Genova. Nice the Banksy show.

Enrico Knoll (4 months ago)
Banksy exhibition at Doge's palace. Very nice! Worth the ticket!

Mihály Kun (11 months ago)
One of the greatest mediavel palaces I've ever seen. It is a multifunctional meeting place full of life.

Elodie Careme (14 months ago)
The place is amazing! It is worth visiting just for the architecture. But I was lucky enough to lose myself in an exhibit dedicated to Mexican painters and to hear a free concert of philarmonic band on a beautiful Summer Sunday. Must-see in the city!

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Frans.Sellies

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Kromeriz Castle and Gardens

Kroměříž stands on the site of an earlier ford across the River Morava. The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens and described as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first residence on the site was founded by bishop Stanislas Thurzo in 1497. The building was in a Late Gothic style, with a modicum of Renaissance detail. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was sacked by the Swedish army (1643).

It was not until 1664 that a bishop from the powerful Liechtenstein family charged architect Filiberto Lucchese with renovating the palace in a Baroque style. The chief monument of Lucchese's work in Kroměříž is the Pleasure Garden in front of the castle. Upon Lucchese's death in 1666, Giovanni Pietro Tencalla completed his work on the formal garden and had the palace rebuilt in a style reminiscent of the Turinese school to which he belonged.

After the castle was gutted by a major fire in March 1752, Bishop Hamilton commissioned two leading imperial artists, Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Josef Stern, arrived at the residence in order to decorate the halls of the palace with their works. In addition to their paintings, the palace still houses an art collection, generally considered the second finest in the country, which includes Titian's last mythological painting, The Flaying of Marsyas. The largest part of the collection was acquired by Bishop Karel in Cologne in 1673. The palace also contains an outstanding musical archive and a library of 33,000 volumes.

UNESCO lists the palace and garden among the World Heritage Sites. As the nomination dossier explains, 'the castle is a good but not outstanding example of a type of aristocratic or princely residence that has survived widely in Europe. The Pleasure Garden, by contrast, is a very rare and largely intact example of a Baroque garden'. Apart from the formal parterres there is also a less formal nineteenth-century English garden, which sustained damage during floods in 1997.

Interiors of the palace were extensively used by Miloš Forman as a stand-in for Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace during filming of Amadeus (1984), based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who actually never visited Kroměříž. The main audience chamber was also used in the film Immortal Beloved (1994), in the piano concerto scene.

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