Without a street-facing facade, Palazzo Covi appears, at first glance, still strongly tied to the image of a late medieval enclosed courtyard. Once through the large entrance door, however, it immediately becomes clear that its interior conceals architectural features that demonstrate its historical and artistic value and its modernity in keeping with the architectural language displayed by other illustrious residences in the area.<\/p>\n
Likely built in the second half of the 16th century, the palace owes its name to the Covi, an ancient noble family that may have owned a fiefdom in Covo, in the Cremona area. They owned only one house within the city walls, located in the San Giovanni district, but had registered lands and manor houses in Cellatica itself since the 15th century. The 15th century saw the family split into two distinct branches, one originating from Agostino, destined to die out in the 17th century, and the other from Giovan Francesco, who inherited the legacy of the first branch and continued the family line until the end of the 18th century.<\/p>\n
The construction was perhaps due to the personality of Agostino Covi (born 1563), the penultimate heir of the Agostino branch, whose name he bore, at a particularly important time for the family, given that the heirs of the second branch, in those very years, were admitted into the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen by Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Upon the death of Agostino Covi’s son, Girolamo, it was Giovan Francesco’s branch that inherited ownership of Palazzo Covi.<\/p>\n
It is not surprising, therefore, that, in contrast with the external appearance of the building, the interior presents a beautiful portico overlooking the courtyard, with seven round arches without columns, but falling on square pillars, while the band of the upper floor presents a series of windows without decorative details. The molded cornice, decorated with a series of dentils, is notable.<\/p>\n
Both the pillars and the arches’ lintels are entirely decorated in rustication, with beautiful graduated profiles: a solution widely adopted in Palazzo Lechi in Erbusco, and which demonstrates the client’s attention to the architectural solutions adopted in the central residences of Franciacorta. The portico, featuring a painted family crest, features masonry vaults with deeply segmented arches, punctuated by pilasters that echo the rustication of the pillars. The ground floor contained all the family’s personal and stately rooms, a series of vaulted rooms, and a grand staircase leading to the piano nobile, where the large gallery with 19th-century decorations was located, perhaps commissioned by Camillo Pulusella, the palace’s last owner, who, in 1862, sold it to the Congregation of Apostolic Charity. This historic fabric is now severely compromised by the building’s conversion into a residential building, which unfortunately also affected the enclosed garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":820,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categorie_arte":[435],"comuni":[92],"class_list":["post-5172","arte_e_cultura","type-arte_e_cultura","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie_arte-historical-buildings","comuni-cellatica"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n