Palazzo Cornazzani

Palazzo Cornazzani
The facade
General information
Type	Palace
Architectural style	Gothic
Town or city	Pavia
Country	Italy
Coordinates	45°11′00″N 9°09′47″E / 45.183364°N 9.163108°E / 45.183364; 9.163108
Opened	15th century

Palazzo Cornazzani is a palace in Pavia, in Lombardy, where, between 1895 and 1896, Albert Einstein lived.

History

The palace belonged to the noble Cornazzani family and was built in the 15th century, incorporating the remains of previous buildings, in late Gothic style. Originally the building had belonged to the aristocratic Beccaria family and passed to the Cornazzani in the 16th century through marriage; the Cornazzani were a lineage of Parma origin who served Filippo Maria Visconti for a long time first and then the Sforza, thus obtaining Milanese citizenship, and of which a branch settled in Pavia. Prominent personalities often stayed in the house, such as the governor of Milan Antonio de Guzmán or Cardinal Michele Bonelli, who apparently stayed more than a year in the Pavia palace.^[1]

• 
  The courtyard.
• 
  The courtyard.
• 
  The loggia.
• 
  Detail of the late Gothic frescoes.
• 
  Detail of the late Gothic frescoes

Architecture

The palace is structured on two courtyards: the first, dating back to the 15th century, has a late Gothic look, with a portico equipped with typical octagonal granite columns, very common in Lombard construction of the period, and enriched by numerous frescoes. The northern side of the portico retains a Gothic-style loggia, supported on the balcony by wooden columns. The second, where the Cornazzani coat of arms is frescoed in the lunettes, was added during the seventeenth century. On the facade, plastered in the modern age, there is a fifteenth-century terracotta tile depicting the Nativity. Inside, it preserves rich fifteenth-century coffered ceilings, Baroque frescoes and a neoclassical wing^[5][6]

References

Citations