Palazzo Pfanner e Giardino

Palazzo Pfanner combines a Baroque residence and an eighteenth-century garden within Lucca's walls. Its history connects merchant patronage with the brewing and medical careers of members of the Pfanner family.

Why it matters

Changes of ownership gave the palace several distinct roles. A residence built with mercantile wealth became the setting for a nineteenth-century brewery, while the medical instruments of Pietro Pfanner add another chapter to the family's history.

What to notice

Classical deities and figures of the Four Seasons animate the garden, arranged around intersecting avenues and an octagonal basin. Citrus tubs and the limonaia belong to its garden culture. The monumental staircase, attributed to Domenico Martinelli, connects with interiors including a hall frescoed by Pietro Paolo Scorsini. Historic furnishings and surgical instruments provide contrasting views of domestic and professional life.

Context and history

The Moriconi family commissioned the palace around 1660. The Controni acquired it in 1680 and enlarged it, adding the staircase around 1686; the garden design is attributed to Filippo Juvarra. Felix Pfanner established a brewery here in 1846 and gradually acquired the property; the brewery closed in 1929. Pietro Pfanner served as mayor of Lucca from 1920 to 1922. Restoration and public presentation of the palace and garden began a further phase in 1995.