Teatro Galletti

On the south side of Piazza Mercato, the Teatro Galletti has anchored Domodossola's main square since the nineteenth century. The civic theatre was the subject of a structural restoration project planned in 2020. Its painted stage curtain, showing Piazza Mercato, was restored through a public Art Bonus campaign.

Why it matters

The Galletti is Domodossola's historic civic theatre, positioned on the southern edge of Piazza Mercato among the square's porticoed houses and historic market setting. It carries the name of Gian Giacomo Galletti, the Ossolan philanthropist whose foundation anchored so much of Domodossola's cultural and civic life, and it remains tied to the Galletti civic institutions — museum and foundation — that grew from his bequest.

What to notice

The theatre is a nineteenth-century public building, its facades worked with decorative plasterwork and a ground-level portico that ties it into the street. The historic stage curtain, painted in tempera on linen canvas by Bernardino Bonardi (Coimo 1834–1923), measures 4.70 by 6.60 metres. Bonardi trained at the Accademia Albertina in Turin and worked as a stage designer in Spain, including at the court in Madrid. After returning to Italy in 1882, he painted the curtain with a view of Piazza del Mercato and a scene of everyday life.

Context and history

The theatre took its name from Gian Giacomo Galletti, and its construction fell in the second half of the nineteenth century. The twentieth century treated it roughly: partial reconfigurations of the interior spaces in the 1920s were followed by works in the 1970s that radically altered the original layout. By recent years the building had deteriorated to the point of being unusable for its intended purposes.

The Comune acquired the curtain in 1986 with the assets of the Fondazione Galletti. A public Art Bonus campaign funded its restoration; the restored work was displayed at the Musei Civici di Palazzo San Francesco before its return to the theatre. A project planned in 2020 proposed changes to the stage, foyer and scenic tower, a new roof structure and seismic, fire-safety, facade and portico works.