PALAZZO MARINO

Description

Essentials about Palazzo Marino brief

Built in the late Renaissance for the banker Tommaso Marino, Palazzo Marino today serves as Milan’s city hall and a representative building for the city administration. Located between Piazza della Scala and Piazza San Fedele, the palazzo is considered Milan’s most important private palace due to its elaborate facades and magnificent courtyard.

The history of Palazzo Marino

Palazzo Marino was named after Tommaso Marino (1475 – 1572), a merchant from Genoa who became one of the leading financial backers of Emperor Charles V and the Holy See. In 1558, already at an advanced age, Marino had Galeazzo Alessi build the very generously dimensioned city palace, 62 meters long and 54 meters wide. Alessi, who was strongly influenced by Michelangelo, cultivated a lavish, decoratively enriched style of building at the transition between Renaissance and Baroque.

However, Marino had overstretched himself economically with his business and the construction of the palazzo, so that after his death the building was taken over by the Habsburg state to pay off his debts. The building remained unfinished until 1872, when the Municipality of Milan ordered the reconstruction by Luca Beltrami of the façade facing Piazza della Scala.

The architecture of Palazzo Marino

The formal repertoire of Palazzo Marino corresponds to the Roman architectural tradition. Wide friezes separate the three floors of the main facades. The rectangular first floor windows are flanked by Mannerist half-columns. On the main floor above, sprung gables in segmental and triangular form alternate with each other. On the second floor, which is hardly lower, the decorative richness is somewhat reduced; a wide cornice supports the balustrade on the attic.

The four-winged building of the palazzo is arranged around two inner courtyards. The Cortile, with a portico with double Tuscan columns and a loggia, is characterized by its great imagination and an extraordinary wealth of sculpture in the sign of an exuberant Mannerism. The showpiece inside the palace is the Sala dell’Alessi, a representation hall reconstructed in its original 16th century appearance. The hall is used for special Christmas exhibitions of famous painters.