Palazzo San Giorgio

On Via Mameli, the aristocratic spine of Casale Monferrato, Palazzo San Giorgio holds the place of honour: since 1885 it has been the seat of the city council. Its three-storey facade, crowned by marble putti, is a defining monument of the city's baroque heritage, with frescoed salons that retain their historic decoration.

Why it matters

This is a major monument in Casale's eighteenth-century heritage. Partially rebuilt from 1775 on a design by Count Filippo Nicolis De Robilant for the Gozani di San Giorgio family and finished in 1778, the palace captures the exact moment when Piedmontese rococo softened into neoclassicism. It also anchors the civic identity of the city: the town council has met here since 1885, and the ballroom of the Gozani family now serves as the council chamber, its vault painted by a Veronese master of the Settecento.

What to notice

Study the facade first. It is divided into three orders of windows, each frame wrapped in stucco, with a portal of paired columns carrying a stone-balustraded balcony; at the corners of the balustrade sit four marble putti representing the four seasons, carved by the Turin sculptor Giovan Battista Bernero, a playful touch on an otherwise formal front. The courtyard preserves a wing of the previous palace, sixteenth century in origin, with a hall frescoed by Pietro Francesco Guala, the painter who left so much of his work in and around Casale. The main staircase rises to the piano nobile, where the former ballroom — today's Sala del Consiglio — keeps a frescoed vault by Francesco Lorenzi, a Veronese painter of 1723 to 1787, showing Apollo with Pegasus amid the Muses, with frieze paintings by Guidolini. The staircase is among the city's noted monumental staircases.

Context and history

The palace rose on the remains of an earlier residence when the Gozani di San Giorgio family decided to rebuild on a scale worthy of their rank; work documented from 1775 was complete by 1778. Stylistically it stands between Rococo and Neoclassicism, which is why its lines feel more sober than the curving facades nearby. When the municipal administration acquired the building in the nineteenth century, the palace changed from aristocratic residence to seat of government without losing its decoration — a rare continuity. In 2016 it was nominated to the FAI's Luoghi del Cuore campaign, the national vote that highlights heritage places loved by the public. Contiguous with Palazzo Magnocavalli next door at number 14, it forms part of a single baroque block along Via Mameli.