Palazzo Gonzaga-Acerbi is a historic palace in

Castel Goffredo Castel Goffredo (; ) is a (municipality) in the province of Mantua, in Lombardy, northern Italy, from Mantua and a few more from Brescia. It lies in a region of springs at the foot of the slopes that drain into Lake Garda, towards the plain of th ...

in the

Province of Mantua The province of Mantua (; Emilian language#Dialects, Mantuan, Emilian language#Dialects, Lower Mantuan: ; Emilian language#Dialects, Upper Mantuan: ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of M ...

in Italy. It forms the whole north front of Piazza Mazzini in the city centre. The original construction of a castle residence, made up of two distinct buildings not connected to each other, subject to various additions and modifications, is set between the Civic Tower to the west and the

Torrazzo Torrazzo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italy, Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southwest of Biella. Torrazzo borders the following municipalities: Bollengo, Burolo, Chiaveran ...

to the east and dates back to about 1350. It was owned by the municipality (''domus comunis''), which carried out expansion and refurbishment works and was the seat of the offices of the

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places *Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy *Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily Surname *House of Gonza ...

vicar, who instead lived in the Torrazzo annex, communicating with the palace. It was used by Aloisio Gonzaga to host his court from 1511 to 1549 and to host a visit

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (as Charles I) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy (as Charles II) ...

in 1543. After the aggregation to the Duchy of Mantua in 1603, no Gonzaga lived in the palace anymore. After the fall of the Gonzaga dynasty, from 1707 it passed under the Austrian government. It remained uninhabited and unusable for a long time until 1756, when the Austrian state property sold it to the municipality of Castel Goffredo. The municipality on 13 April 1776 gave it to Colonel Giacomo Acerbi, landowner, who modified the original medieval appearance of the building. It was the birthplace of

Giovanni Acerbi Giovanni Acerbi (14 November 1825, Castel Goffredo - 4 September 1869, Florence) was an Italian soldier, politician and supporter of Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century poli ...

, who on 27–29 April 1862 used it to host

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as (). In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as () or (). 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. H ...

.Memorial plaque on Palazzo Gonzaga-Acerbi in Piazza Mazzini. Inside there is a

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

supported by marble columns with finely frescoed

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German, as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

faces (perhaps the school of

Giulio Romano Giulio Pippi ( – 1 November 1546), known as Giulio Romano and Jules Romain ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the ...

). A

staircase A stairwell or stair room is a room in a building where a stair is located, and is used to connect walkways between floors so that one can move in height. Collectively, a set of stairs and a stairwell is referred to as a staircase or stairway ...

, with a frescoed vault, leads to the main floor. Aloisio Gonzaga is also responsible for the creation of the internal

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

, now full of centuries-old trees, the white marble fountain and the pergola of precious grapes.

References

Bibliography

* Costante Berselli, ''Castelgoffredo nella storia'', Mantova, 1978. * Francesco Bonfiglio, ''Notizie storiche di Castelgoffredo'', 2ª ed., Mantova, 2005, . * Carlo Gozzi, ''Raccolta di documenti per la storia patria od Effemeridi storiche patrie'', Tomo II, Mantova, 2003, . Castel Goffredo Gonzaga residences Gonzaga-Acerbi Buildings and structures in Castel Goffredo {{Italy-struct-stub