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Banca d’Italia selling the palace in Siena that hosted Galileo
The sale of the local offices goes on, as they’re no longer operational after the reorganization process started in past few years
It’s really true that Italy is an open-air museum. And that some tycoon might take advantage of this. The confirmation comes from the recent sales of properties by Banca d’Italia, continuing its branch reorganization campaign. Not a long time ago, the bank used to have offices basically in every Italian province covering treasury and customer counter services. Since the past few years, with the introduction of the Euro and the transfer of the monetary sovereignty (coin printing and issuing ) to the BCE, these buildings, in most cases beautiful and exclusive, a piece of architectural history and of Italy itself, have become redundant. Therefore, they were put on sale. There are buildings of different periods, always centrally located, as well the City Council building, the prefecture, or the Carabinieri station. There are also real jewels, as in the case of an offer inserted in the last batch of real estate ads.
In fact, Banca d’Italia is putting on auction a very important property: it’s the Papesse Palace in Siena, to which many publications are dedicated, built along the “Via di Città”, corresponding to the historical residential area of Siena called «Terzo di Città» (third of city), close to Piazza del Campo. The palace was built per order of the sister of the Pope Pio II, Caterina Piccolomini (from this the denomination “Delle Papesse”) in 1460, and it was probably designed by the architect Bernardo Rossellino and was finished in 1495. It was exactly there, in 1633, that Galileo Galilei was hosted by the archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini.
He used its platform to observe the moon, as told in the encyclopaedia. These days, the building is completely free and destined to become a museum. The bank itself describes the (good) conditions of the property: 2,945 Sq m, built more or less during the same time the first bank of the history was established (Monte dei Paschi di Siena indeed): “The building, located in Via di Città, is a typical example of renaissance architecture Florentine style, is rectangular shaped, and it develops on two floors above ground. The facade, of monumental dimensions, is entirely made of travertine. The vertical carrying structures are of a stonework of solid bricks. The complex is constituted by one building composed of a compact central body spreading on four floors to which a two-storey adjoining building was added (the old stable and barn) developing on Via Del Poggio. The building, designed to accommodate the Art Centre for Contemporary Art, is currently free and is in good maintenance conditions”. It’s tempting to pay it a visit. The next owner will surely enjoy it.
Source: Milano Finanza
Translator: Cristina Ambrosi