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COMUNE DI PAVIA

COMUNE DI PAVIA

CO PP

Comune di Pavia

PaviaTown of Art,

Cradle of Culture

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The city of Pavia, founded by theLigurians on the bank of the riverTicino and founded again by theRomans in 89 B.C. was chosen asthe capital of the kingdom bothby the Ostrogothic king Theodor-ic (who got the Royal Place builtin Pavia) and by the Lombardkings who embellished the townwith several wonderful churches.In the 10th century Pavia fell intodecline, which reached its climaxin 924 when the town was sackedby the Hungarians. But duringthe 9th century many politicalchanges gave birth to the freecity-state. Thus, at the beginningof the new millenium, Pavia had

a really thriving economy, politics and culture. This climate of rebirthresulted in a new architectural fervour. In fact several builder’s yardswere opened, therefore new places of worship were built, old and no-ble religious places recovered their former magnificence. The re-markable quantity of churches and monasteries, which highlightedthe sight of the medieval town, was partly due to Pavia’s traditionalreligious vocation, partly to its strategical position on the “Francige-na Via”, the atonement journey of the pilgrims towards the HolyLand. The believers arrived in Pavia to chiefly worship the revered re-mains of St. Augustine, the Doctor of the Church, in Saint PeterBasilica. This helped foster a growing need to provide accomodationto travellers and many hospital facilities were built in Pavia.It was also a thriving and active economical period because Paviawas ideally situated at the cross-roads to northern Europe. More-over, the longest river, the Po, into which the river Ticino flows, pro-vided, then, a privileged river route towards Venice and the East.During the two fairs of Saint Martin and Palm Sunday in Pavia, manyexotic items were displayed on the stalls. These products, such asfabrics, spices, carpets, drew several merchants from Naples, Saler-

PAVIA: ITS REBIRTH AFTER THEYEAR 1000 A.D.

Town Museums: Lombard Jewellery

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San MicheleChurch

Masterpiece of the Ro-manesque architecture in Lom-bardy, this church has a majes-tic nave and two aisles, sur-mounted by the lantern and itsfaçade is richly decorated withsculptures, bas reliefs and fig-ures of animals, plant volutecornices and green shoots. Thepresent church was built on thesite of a previous Lombardchurch and was the coronationplace. In fact Frederich Bar-barossa was crowned here in1155. The inside boasts capitalsshowing biblical stories, alle-gorical figures. The crypt isgreatly attractive.The mosaic floor in the presby-tery shows the “Months” andthe “Labyrinth” and thetransept contains Teodote’scrucifix, a silver-laminatedmasterpiece by a skilled gold-smith, who worked in northernItaly in the second half of the10th century.

San Pietroin Ciel d’Oro

The Romanesque Church, re-furbished in the 12th century, iswell-known all over Europe forSaint Augustine’s remains,which in the 8th century weretransfered here from Sardiniain obedience to the Lombard

no, Amalfi. Thanks to its wealth and traditional ties with the imperi-al power, since the end of the 9th century, Pavia competed with Mi-lan in order to conquer the leading role in becoming the cultural andpolitical capital in Lombardy.

On the left: San Michele Church

San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro. Sant Augustine’s Arch

Detail of the St. Michael’s Church

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King Liutpran-do’s will. TheKing’s tomb-stone is alsovisible. In thepresbythery themagnificentand imposingmarble Arch isdedicated tothe Father ofthe Church.This arch wasmade between1362 and 1402by Lombardmasters, who

decorated it with many statuesand carved figures.Outside the Church a memorialtablet shows the lines Dante(1265-1321, one of the mostprestigious Italian poets) wroteabout San Pietro in Ciel d’Oroon the famous philosopherSeverino Boezio’s burial.

San TeodoroChurch

This church with its redbrickfaçade is situated in the centralmedieval fishing quarter. Dedi-cated to one of the patrons ofthe town, the church housesseveral votive tokens: from theRomanesque frescoes on thepillars to the Renaissancepainting cycles of Saint Agnesand Saint Theodore (16th cen-tury) and the famous, early 16thcentury “View of Pavia”, which is

an amazing proof of Pavia’s top-ographical value.The basement crypt is remark-able captivating with its Ro-manesque carved figures, Ro-man capitals and the Lantern,once as decorated as the façadewith polished ceramic basins oforiental origin.

Santa Maria in BetlemmeChurch

This 12th century Romanesquechurch is situated in a townarea, which was once an an-cient quartier outside the townwalls. In the Middle Ages, thepilgrims on their journey to theEast used to travel across thisarea, which fell within the Bish-op of Bethlehem’s competenceand was next to the ancienthospital of St. Antonio: a typi-cal medieval building whichwas to give hospitality to trav-ellers and help poor and sickpeople too. The church con-tains the wooden statue of theMadonna della Stella, which isworshipped and traditionallycarried in procession on theboats along the river.

The “Broletto”(the ancient townhall)

The “Broletto” was the histori-San Theodoro Church

Santa Maria in Betlemme

The façade of the “Broletto”

The façade of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro

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cal seat of the city meetingsfrom the 11th century to the16th century. It was graduallyrestored to respond to thegrowing needs of the municipalcommunity. According to thetypical solution of the pubblicbuilding, the “Broletto” has aporch on the ground floor and avery large meeting room on thefirst floor. The southern winghas recently been restored andit is the seat of many culturalassociations. The northern partlooking on to the “PiazzaGrande” (Main Square), fea-tures the sixteenth-centuryLoggia giving access to the“Fresco” Hall.

Vittoria Square

It is the main town square,known as “Platea Magna”, largesquare, in ancient times, incontrast with the “Platea Par-va”, small square, i.e. theCathedral Square.Near the intersection point be-tween “Cardo” and “Decumano”(the Romans used these wordsto indicate the sense of towndirections and divisions), thissquare was an important mar-ket place.It was almost totally surround-ed by the 14th century arches.The “Broletto” and the nobleGothic small mansion of the“Diversi” look on to the square.There is also the desecrated

church of S.ta Maria Gualtieri,founded in the 10th century.The imperial delegateGualtiero wanted it to be builtnear his house. Today it is usedas a centre for cultural events.Somewhere on the Square it ispossible to get into the under-ground market, which was car-ried out in modern times.

The medievaltowersToday these are just five of ahundred or perhaps more tow-ers featuring the outline of themedieval town: three near theuniversity and two in L. Portastreet. They date back to the11th and 12th centuries, theyare made of bricks and werethe symbol of the powerfulfamilies they belonged to.Remains of smaller towers arestill incorporated in manybuildings.The town tower, which oncestood next to the medievalcathedral with its 16th centurymarble loggia suddenly col-lapsed in 1987. Its remains arestill visible.

The Notaries’ small Loggia

Vittoria Square

The medieval towers

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THE FLOWER-ING OF ART UNDER THE VISCONTI ANDTHE SFORZA

In 1359 Pavia, divided by inter-nal fights between several fam-ilies, was conquered byGaleazzo Visconti the 2ndmaster of Milan. During thisperiod, Pavia, thanks toGaleazzo and his son GianGaleazzo, got a splendid town-planning, architectural andcultural restoration project.Thus the new court made Paviaa prestigious European capi-tal. After the building of thecastle, the opening of the mainsquare, the reconstruction ofthe typical bridge on the Ticinoand the beginning of severalreligious and town buildingyards, Pavia got the late Gothicaspect, which still character-izes it in many of its terracottadecorated buildings.In the same years the institu-tion of the “studium generale”,which an official document in1361 by Emperor Charles IVmade equal to the Universityof Bologna, Paris and Montpel-lier, the foundation of theCarthusian Monastery, estab-lished, at the end of the centu-ry, by Gian Galeazzo Viscontiand which was to be ChampolChartreuse’s replica, as asumptuous chapel and family

mausoleum, ranked Paviaamong the leading towns inEurope.

The Cathedral

Since 1488 the inhabitants ofPavia wanted a Renaissancecathedral to be rebuilt to re-place the ancient Romanesquecathedral of St. Stefano andS.ta Maria del Popolo. At thebeginning, Bramante, an archi-tect from Urbino, was given theproject with da Vinci’s consul-tancy. Then Bramante contin-ued his work by followingAmadeo’s instructions.The ambitions constructioncontinued with difficulty in the17th and 18th centuries; in the19th century the imposingdome (the third in size in Italy)was carried out together withthe façade still lacking its mar-ble cover.In order to prove the initial

San Lanfranco: Cloister

The Cathedral front and Regisole Statue

The view of the town from Borgo Ticino

The Cathedral dome

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magnificence and refinementof the project, the town muse-ums house the wonderfulwooden model carved by localskilled craftsmen in the early16th century.In front of the cathedral there isthe bronze statue of the “Reg-isole”, which is F. Messina’smodern copy of the original inRavenna, the war trophy, de-stroyed by the Jacobins.

The CoveredBridge

In the middle of the 14th centu-ry the bridge was reconstructedto replace the ancient Romanbridge, whose piers are still visi-ble. It links the old city centre tothe picturesque medieval vil-lage, a traditional place of wash-erwomen, gravel diggers andfishermen. This bridge is one ofPavia’s famous landmark withits tile roof, wanted by GaleazzoII Visconti the day after the cap-ture of the town, and a small

The Covered Bridge

Visconteo Castle

Visconteo Castle: Tower

Visconteo Castle: the courtyard

The view of Borgo Ticino from the bridge

18th century chapel dedicatedto St. Giovanni Nepomuceno.The bridge was bombed out dur-ing the Second World War andreconstructed in the early 1950s.

The VisconteoCastle

Built by Galeazzo II Visconti asfrom 1360 the construction wasachieved after only five years.It was a stately and refined courtresidence rather than a fortress.The two and three mullionedterracotta windows and the re-fined decoration of the court-yard highlight this purpose.There are some significantproofs of the great frescoesshowing battles, hunting andmiddle-class life scenes, whichdecorated rooms, porches and

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loggias. Another excellent proofis the complete decoration ofthe splendid Blue Room with itsgold and lapislazuli. Perhaps itwas the seat of the Visconti li-brary with its 1.000 manuscriptsand commissioned by Petrarch.The Castle was used as barracksand during Napoleon’s age thecrenellations were covered by aroof. In the 20th century theCastle was bought by the mu-nicipality, restored and used asa cultural centre. In fact, it hous-es the various sections of thetown museums as well as art ex-hibition rooms.

The Visconti Park

When Gian Galeazzo inheritedthe Castle from his father, heextended the park towards Mi-lan and ended it by foundingthe Carthusian Monastery. Thepark was totally walled andused as the Duke’s huntingplace. There were farmhouses,exotic animal menageries, the“Torretta” (a country house),the castle of Mirabello, the cap-tain’s home. In 1525 the FrenchKing Francis 1st and the Span- The Carthusian Monastery

Bernardino Luini’s (circa 1516) “The Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus” in the lavatory (Carthusian Monastery)

Town Museum: the Battle of Pavia

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ish Emperor Charles V met inbattle in this park. The Frencharmy was defeated, thus Paviastarted being ruled by Spain.Today this wonderful park canbe crossed thanks to manypeaceful trails.

The CarthusianMonastery

It is seven km to the north ofPavia. Gian Galeazzo Viscontiwanted a magnificent complexto be constructed at the parkboundary. It was to be a privatechapel and a family mau-soleum too.The foundation stone was laidin 1396 during the late Gothicperiod, but only in the mid-15th century, the building wasachieved in its rich Renais-sance decoration, whichmakes it one on the most pres-tigious monuments of the Ital-ian art. Its façade is remarkably

decorated withwhite and poly-chrome mar-ble. It is worthvisiting theivory triptych inthe old vestry,the superbfrescoes byBergognone inthe transept,the amazingwooden carv-ing in the choirand the rich

terracotta decorations in thetwo cloisters.

Borromeo College

This College, founded by St.Charles in 1561, is one of themost beautiful mannerist man-sions in Lombardy. It was con-structed between 1561 and1588 on the project of Pellegri-no Pellegrini, alias Tibaldi. Af-terwards, Richichi enriched thecomplex with beautiful Italiangardens.This “palace of Learning”, asVasari called it, looks on to oneof the most admirable squaresin Pavia. Its front has a strongplastic relief underlined by the

Front of Borromeo College

Detail of the Carthusian MonasteryCourtyard of Borromeo College

decorated windows alternatingwith niches and a monumentalmain doorway.In the early 17th century thelarge hall on the first floor wasdecorated with paintings dedi-cated to Saint Carlo Borromeo.The vault and the north wallare the work of Cesare Nebbiafrom Orvieto. The south wallshows the laying of the cardi-nal’s hat, Federico Zuccari’swork.In 1818-1820 the college wasachieved and enlarged to-wards the river. Thus the near-by medieval church of San Gio-vanni in Borgo was demol-ished and its rich sculpturesare now in the town museums.The College was founded toenable talented but poor stu-dents, who could not conse-quently afford to attend uni-versity, to devote themselvesto studies.

Meanwhile,during theCounter-Re-formation theCollege was towarrant ade-quate moralvalues.In the 18thand 19th cen-turies juristsdestined forhighly respon-sible posi-tions in theChurch andMilan’s State

attended this prestigious col-lege.

Ghislieri College

It was founded by Pope Pius Vin 1507 on Tibaldi’s project: anextremely austere three-floorbuilding on a square plan.In fact the front is severe withits windows without cornice.The plastic effect is highlight-ed by the large main door, theonly jutting element. The col-lege courtyard features porch-es with coupled pillars, whilethe upper floor is closed. Thedomed Oratory is to the west.Next to the College there is anelegant, neoclassical two-floorbuilding, which was construct-ed during Napoleon’s time inorder to supply the militaryschool with classrooms. Todaythis building is the seat of thecollege administration.The statue of St. Pius V standsin the middle of the square. Itis a refined example of thebaroque sculpture byFrancesco Nuvolone.

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A fresco in Borromeo College

Saint Pius V’s altar. Piece in the Chapel of Ghislieri College

Ghislieri College

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THE AGE OF EN-LIGHTENMENTAfter the well-known battle ofPavia in 1525, the town fell intoa long decline affecting everyfield of social life. It was in the18th century, the Age of En-lightenment, and during thepassage from the Spanish ruleto the Austrian rule that Paviarecovered its vitality and indus-triousness. The Habsburgrulers proved to be chiefly in-terested in the economical andsocial situation of the town.Therefore several reforms weremade to revive the economyand social life. Queen MariaTheresa and her son Joseph IIgave major boost to Pavia’s uni-versity and made it one of themost prestigious Europeanuniversities, mainly for itsavant-garde scientific courses.New experimental teachingswere carried out by eminentmen of science: AntonioScarpa, the father of anatomy,Lazzaro Spallanzani, famous forhis experiments on fertilizationand for creating one of the mostappreciated naturalistic collec-tions of his time, and Alessan-dro Volta, a famous physicist,the inventor of the pile, who didhis researches on electricity.One of the most important hy-draulic works was then carriedout: the building of the Nav-iglio, a navigable canal con-ceived by da Vinci and executedin 1772 on Paolo Frisi’s plan.

In the seventies, on the initia-tive of four Pavia aristocrats,the foundation of the Theatre ofthe Four Knights (today, TeatroFraschini) took place. It was thefirst public theatre planned byAntonio Galli Bibiena.The private architecture was al-so thriving: refined and splen-did noble buildings were con-structed.They were richly decorated withpaintings and stuccoes, name-ly: Palazzo Mezzabarba, PalazzoOlevano, Palazzo Gambarana,Palazzo Vistarino, PalazzoBrambilla.At the end of the century, de-spite the political changes, theworks of reform concerning thetown refurbishment did notstop. The main town entranceswere designed again, such asthe Gate of San Vito, togetherwith welfare and education in-stitutions.Marchese Luigi Malspina, anarchitect and collector, a skilledperson of culture and strongcivic consciousness wanted thefirst town museum to be built.

The University

The university, one of the old-est in Europe, was founded in1361 by Galeazzo II Visconti,who set up courses in law,medicine and liberal arts. TheUniversty underwent subse-quent changes, but thanks tothe Austrian rule, it keeps its

Detail (University)

University magnolia garden

University courtyard dedicated to A. Volta

University Great Hall: the opening ceremony of the academic year

University Volta lecture-hall

present architec-tural structure.In fact, under theAustrian rule, theunivesity teach-ings were re-formed, the build-ings were re-stored in the neo-classical style andenlarged by thearchitects Pier-marini and Pol-lack. New lecture

halls were added: the Librarycalled “Teresiana”, AntonioScarpa’s anatomy theatre andthe physics theatre, whereAlessandro Volta showed theinvention of the pile toNapoleon.

In the 20th century the Univer-sity also occupied the complexof the nearby San Matteo Hos-pital, a Renaissance cross-shaped building with terracottadecorated courtyards.

The BotanicalGardens

They are situated in an ancientarea where the convent of San-t’Epifanio once stood andwhose cloister is still visible. In1773 under the Austrian rulethey were refurbished by thebotanists Brusati and Borsieri.The architect Piermariniplanned wooden greenhouseswhich were then replaced byiron and glass greenhouses.Research was deeply boostedby Giovanni Antonio Scopoli(1777), who increased thebotanical specimens, so hemade Pavia’s Botanical Gar-dens a centre of studies andavant-garde experimentation inEurope.

The Naviglio (the canal)

This very important hydraulicwork was to link the Darsena(wetdock) of Milan to the riverTicino, then, via the main Ital-ian river, the Po, to Venice andthe East. Da Vinci planned it in

25Botanical Gardens Naviglio (the canal)

Piermarini’s greenhouses in the Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

the 16th century, it was partlycarried out in the 17th centuryand only achieved inNapoleon’s time in the townsection. The locks, used to fillthe groud differences in level,respond, in their scenographi-cal disposition, to the stan-dards of neoclassical town dec-orations. Along the canal, in atown area, the quarter of BorgoCalvenzano was carried out. Itwas intended for storing thegoods and is a still existing in-frastructure, but now it is main-ly a residential area.

Fraschini Theatre

Four representatives of thetown nobility wanted the firstpublic theatre to be built. Theproject, carried out between1771 and 1773, was assigned toone of the greatest stage de-signing architect of the time,Antonio Galli Bibiena, who car-ried out a complete masonrybuilding and adopted innova-tive and clever solutions: a bell-shaped parterre to get excellentacoustics. In the middle of the19th century the theatre wasowned by the municipality andnamed after the famous tenorfrom Pavia Gaetano Fraschini.Acknowledged as a “theatre oftradition”, every year from Oc-tober to January, it has a variedprogramme: operas, plays, mu-sic and ballet.

Mezzabarba Man-sion and Oratory

Masterpiece of the late LombardBaroque, the Palace wasplanned by the architect Giovan-ni Antonio Veneroni as a stately

Mezzabarba Mansion

The front of Fraschini Theatre

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residence of the noble Mez-zabarba family. The picturesquefaçade is severe despite its deco-rated architectural aspect. Itslarge halls are beautifully deco-rated, chiefly its dance-hall withthe frescoes of “Diana’s Stories”on the walls and “The Virtueovercoming the Dagron” on thevault. They were painted by Gio-vanni Angelo Borroni. Next tothe building there is the Oratorydedicated to Saint Quirico andGiuditta with beautiful rococostuccoes and frescoes by PietroAntonio Magatti.This mansion has been townhall since the end of the 19thcentury.

Malaspina Mansion

This neoclassical residence wasplanned by Luigi Malaspina, acultivated marquis and enlight-ened collector, to whom Paviaowes art collections. Today thebuilding is the prefect’s resi-dence whose monumental gateshows the statues of Petrarchand Severino Boezio. It mirrorsthe principles of the noblesmagnificence and honour. Thefrescoed front faces a “roman-tic” English garden. The hallsare richly and variedly decorat-ed with neoclassical paintingsand stuccoes.

THE VISCONTEOCASTLE MUSEUMSThe Visconteo Castle, Pavia’smonumental place “par excel-lence”, is the seat of the townMuseums. It is three-floor longand over 8.000 square metrewide. The Blue Room in the town Museums

Frescoes with goddess Diana’s stories in Mezzabarba Mansion

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On the ground floor there arethe ticket office, the bookshop,the exhibition room, the au-diovisual room, the museumsections: archaeology, Lom-bard jewellery, medievalsculptures, the Romanesquecathedral room, the Gothicand Renaissance room and theSant’Agata al Monte fresco.The first floor houses the art-gallery with ancient paintings,together with the 17th and18th century paintings, theroom containing the woodenmodel of the cathedral, the

19th centurypicture-galleryand the Mo-rone Dona-tion. Ther arealso the printroom, the coincabinet, themanager’s of-fice, the artreference, thephotograph li-brary and thespeciality li-brary.The secondfloor housesthe Italian“Risorgimen-to” museum,the RobecchiBricchettiethnographi-cal museum,the collectionof plaster

casts and the modern sculp-

ture section.Important building works arebeing carried out in order towarrant both a greater func-tionality to the exhibitionrooms devoted to the historyof the castle and a wider roomfor the collections, not yet ondisplay, and temporary art ex-hibitions. The garrets and thebasements will be recovered,so new rooms will be devotedto modern art, to the very richRenaissance print collectionand minor guilds.The campaigns for the restora-tion of the castle frescoes, af-ter the refurbishment of theSala Azzurra, will aim at theporch and open Gallery vaultsand the decorations of thetower room, which, in ancienttimes, used to be the Viscontifamily’s rich library.The Castle Museums aim atbecoming the centre of thetown museum system thanksto the quality, variety and rich-ness of their collections. Theexisting University NaturalScience Museum, with LazzaroSpallanzani’s collection, to-gether with the ElectricalTechnique Museum, theCathedral Crypt Museum, theDiocesan Museum and theCarthusian Monastery Muse-um will join this importantprocess. The Castle Museum housetemporary art exhibitions andpromote meetings, courses oflectures and publications.

Malaspina art gallery in the town Museums

Town Museums: The Portrait of Nicola Massa by T. Cremona

Town Museums: Roman art section