Palazzo Ancini

Address and contacts

Via Farini, 1 - 42121 Reggio nell'Emilia
0039 0522 456111 - Switchboard of the municipality of Reggio Emilia

Opening times

The Palace normally isn't visitable because it houses municipal administration offices

How to get there

Reggio nell'Emilia - Town centre

Historical notes

Over the years from 1924 to 1930 works were carried out which almost completely transformed the appearance of via Farini and via Don Minzoni, although the arrangement of the windows, the entrance door and the shops were conserved. Prof. Luigi Bertolini, author of the design, embellished the architectural townscape consistently with the cultural norms of his time. The spare severity of a mid-16th century building like Palazzo Ancini had little appeal and he modified its effect by grafting on elements reminiscent of mannerist and in part, Baroque styles – a successful operation, given the elegance of the resulting moulding, gargoyles, columns and the door’s pseudo-caryatids. In 1887 the building was left by Conte Giovanni Ancini as a legacy to the Congregazione di Carità (the Congregation of Charity). Conte Ancini’s family had owned the building since 1821. Prior to that date it had been owned by the Conte Sormani family from 1766, by the Pegoletti family from 1659 and before that again, by the Ruggieri family.
On opening the entrance door you are confronted with a rich architectural spectacle with two courtyards separated by a double colonnade of pillars with ionic capitols. The first courtyard, on the same side as the entrance, is the Courtyard of Honour, embellished by a small, 16th century quadripartite blind arcade on the wall faced by blind windows with trompe-l'oeil decoration on the opposite side. The construction of the grand staircase, which still exists today, dates back to the 18th century although its decorations and paintings originate from later times. The second courtyard however, retains traces of paint marks suggesting the previous existence of important transit and service doorways strictly connected to the architectural and functional layout of the building. The 18th century niches and their sculptures surmounting the doorways are still extant at the piano nobile (noble floor) level, just as many individual examples of the original sculptural decorations for the route to the Piano Nobile itself still survive. Anselmo Govi, the last artist of the academic classicist school, painted the ceiling fresco above the staircase in the 1920s, with a complex allegorical representation of Charity. The recent restoration works have made it possible to confirm the original date for the building. One example is the room located to the south-west of the Piano Nobile with 16th century characteristics and beams in multi-coloured wood.