Palazzetto Baviera

Palazzetto Baviera stands beside the Rocca on Piazza del Duca in Senigallia. Its five piano-nobile rooms are known for the stucco ceilings by Federico Brandani, whose intricate programmes combine classical and biblical subjects.

Why it matters

Giovanni Giacomo Baviera, maternal uncle and lieutenant of Giovanni Della Rovere, commissioned the residence beside the family's fortress. The building became a repository for the family's history and collections. When the last Baviera heirs donated it to the municipality in 1956, they also gave its furnishings to the city.

What to notice

The five stucco rooms on the piano nobile are dedicated to Imperial Rome, Republican Rome, the Iliad, Hercules and the Old Testament. Brandani's high-relief figures fill the ceilings, framing scenes of battles, heroic deeds and biblical narratives. The small cloister below has an arcaded colonnade around a central well bearing the Baviera family coats of arms. Its design echoes the cloister of the Convento delle Grazie. Baccio Pontelli has been suggested as the possible designer of the building, though the attribution is not certain.

Context and history

Giovanni Baviera arrived in Senigallia in late 1474 to take possession of the state on behalf of his nephew. The palace was built and adapted between the late fifteenth century and the first decade of the sixteenth, and became family property in 1512. Giuseppe Baviera later commissioned Federico Brandani of Urbino to decorate the ceilings. The family retained the building and its furnishings until its donation to Senigallia in 1956.