Palazzo del Carretto

On Via Canina, away from the baroque parade of Via Mameli, Palazzo del Carretto preserves an older Casale. Built in the fifteenth century and restored in 1928, it keeps a courtyard with a central well, an L-shaped colonnaded portico and a sandstone portal carved with the arms and motto of a Ligurian dynasty, all testimony to the city's Gothic age.

Why it matters

Casale Monferrato is celebrated for its Settecento palaces, but its medieval fabric is far rarer, and this palace is one of the Gothic complexes the municipality itself lists as defining the historic city, alongside the San Bartolomeo–Baronino group and the Palazzo di Anna d'Alençon. Its value lies in completeness: rather than a single facade, it conserves the whole spatial idea of a Quattrocento noble house — street portal, porticoed court, water supply at the centre — in a form you can still read today. The Del Carretto heraldry on the portal ties the building to one of Italy's great maritime-aristocratic families, transplanted from the Ligurian coast into Monferrato politics.

What to notice

The sandstone portal on Via Canina bears the arms and motto of the Del Carretto of Savona. The courtyard preserves a central well and an L-shaped colonnaded portico, revealing the internal arrangement of a fifteenth-century residence. Restoration work in 1928 by engineer Tornielli is another chapter in the building’s history.

Context and history

Palazzo del Carretto dates to the fifteenth century, when Casale Monferrato flourished under the Paleologi marquises. Its portal preserves the heraldry of the Del Carretto family, whose branches were established in north-west Italy. The residence later underwent changes and was restored in 1928 by engineer Tornielli; the courtyard, portico and portal remain legible features of the historic complex.