Palazzo Fantuzzi: Attraction informations
Palazzo Fantuzzi, home of the well-known Fantuzzi family, stands in Bologna in Via San Vitale 23.
The Fantuzzi belonged to the Bolognese aristocracy and their palazzo was built in 1521, at the beginning of the Papal State in Bologna.
The initial project of the building is ascribed to Formigine although some think its real author was the architect Sebastiano Serlio.
The palazzo is known as “the Elephant palace”; it is in fact decorated with two carved elephants on both sides of its main façade. These figures are directly linked to the family’s name which is thought to come from elefantuzzi (Italian for little elephants). Both elephants carry on their backs a castle with a main gate and 3 cylindrical towers, which complete the family’s coat of arms.
The staircase and the frescoes
The interior of the building is characterized by a huge sitting room designed by
Paolo Canali in 1680. The stairway is remembered by Malvasia as “noble stairway of new and bizarre invention” of which some original designs are well preserved in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Canali was a very active architect in Bologna during those years, although he often worked outside the city. One of his masterpieces is the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in San Giovanni in Persiceto, started in 1654 and finished in 1681. He also designed the internal façade of the main cloister of
Palazzo d'Accursio, embellished by a cartouche in remembrance of Pope Alessandro VII. Another of Canali’s masterpieces is the restoration of the
Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in via Galliera.
The ceilings of the palazzo are decorated by
Gioacchino Pizzoli, Francesco Bibiena, Angelo Michele Colonna and several other artists, all of these important names in the decorative arts of Bologna. The Bibiena’s, for example, were a family of architects and screenwriters who designed the Teatro Comunale, while
Angelo Michele Colonna was a very well-known artist during the XVII century, who worked in the decorations of the Royal Palace of Madrid and the decorations of Versailles. He was therefore highly requested by the noble families of Bologna.
The surrounding area
The area where palazzo Fantuzzi stands is very interesting from a historical point of view. Just a few metres away from it, we can still see
one of the surviving gates of the second ring of walls of the city (
cerchia dei Torresotti), facing Piazza Aldrovandi which was in the past part of the defensive moat of Bologna.
Almost in front of the palazzo we can admire the
Church of San Vitale e Agricola in Arena, probably built on the place were the city’s Roman amphitheatre once stood and where both saints found their martyrdom.
Traces from the modern history of the city can be read in the lower part of the walls, where inscriptions indicating how to reach the
bomb-shelters in the city and who to call in emergency
during World War II can be still read.
