Count Lodovico Alfieri's "Royal" Palace

Masterpiece of Baroque architecture—considered among the finest examples of a noble palace in the City of L’Aquila—it is ranked first in 18th-century Abruzzo in the History of Italian Architecture published by Electa, rebuilt immediately after the 1703 earthquake on a design commissioned a few decades earlier from the great Roman architect Carlo Fontana (1638–1714).

Formerly the Royal Palace of the Viceroy of the Abruzzi, Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, Count of Montorio.

In 1489 it was occupied by the Lords of the Chamber of the City.

A coveted residence of sovereigns, princes, and high ecclesiastical dignitaries.

In 1493 Queen Joanna I of Aragon and Duke Alfonso of Calabria stayed there on the occasion of their visit to L’Aquila.

On 18 June 1806 the Sovereign of the Two Sicilies, Joseph Napoleon—on the occasion of his visit to L’Aquila—was hosted at the palace by the Marchioness Donna Eusebia, who in his honor had a sumptuous banquet prepared inside the “Gallery,” accompanied by music and dances.

The Governor of the Abruzzi, Madame Margaret of Austria—daughter of Emperor Charles V and sister of Philip II, King of Spain—at the end of the sixteenth century made it her residence while awaiting transfer to the renovated and enlarged Palace of the Captain of the City, today the seat of the Municipality of L’Aquila.

Other changes of ownership followed over time, passing from the Franchi to the Carafa, from the Colonna to the Barberini, and it was precisely Cardinal Maffeo Barberini—future Pope Urban VIII—who transferred the property to Count Lodovico Alfieri—great-grandson of Count Fabrizio, counsellor to Charles V and Chamberlain of the City on no fewer than three occasions—for 17,000 ducats.

The design and construction of the Palace interacts with the urban scene in which, paraphrasing what was stated in the reports of the time, it stands both as ornament and magnificence and as a backdrop that resolves tensions within the overall building, linking the architectural narrative of the palace complex to the square in front, resolving and ultimately defining, with an unmistakably Baroque language and method, the northern side of Santa Margherita Square, setting itself above all—with the double rusticated portal, emphasized by the Doric columns supporting the balcony—as the new focal point of view.

Thus the façade is still Mannerist in its overall setting, but Baroque in the definition of the individual elements which, even in the self-indulgence of the sumptuous and complex ensemble of details—such as the elaborate corner pilasters (framed by rustication), the window surrounds, and the intricate cornice—deliberately disregards, more than it embraces, the simpler and calmer order of elements.

The designer—whose hand is attributed to the great architect Carlo Fontana (1638–1714)—entrusts the axial view to the double portal—unique in the city—forcing the internal organization of the building to that of the square in front, whose vanishing point is determined not by the entrance to the building but by the center of the two portals; and it is precisely in this the novelty of the façade that raises it to first place for elegance and beauty compared to the other Baroque buildings of the city.

It is certainly much closer, in its stylistic choices, to the architectural taste of Roman palaces; indeed it is worth pausing on its distinctive elements: the broad ceremonial staircase of Farnese memory, which by its vastness occupies the entire south-west side of the building; the large and spacious double-height “Marchioness Donna Evelina” gallery—unique in all of central Italy—almost 11 meters high, lit by as many as 13 windows, occupies half of the frontage and becomes the absolute protagonist of the entire vast piano nobile together with the magnificently frescoed Sala dei Campanelli, on the intrados of the wide vault, with Cosmatesque perspectives executed in trompe-l’œil; and again the other richly adorned rooms, also frescoed, ending with the sumptuous and beautiful bridal chamber, “the alcove,” with its proscenium arch in gilded relief stuccoes—in which elegant Corinthian pilasters support the enchanting projecting arch, also gilded—that defines the passage between the large reception hall, served by a majestic festooned fireplace in stone and gilded stuccoes, and the intimate bedroom surmounted by an imposing and sumptuous wooden canopy, masterfully carved and gilded, completely woven and lined with fine and rare olive-green damask fabrics from the Royal Silk Mill of San Leucio, by kind concession of the Bourbons.

Even today it preserves intact its function of representation and beauty proper to a patrician noble residence of unparalleled rarity and splendor of that time.

The palace is still owned today by the descendant of Count Lodovico Alfieri.

It is specified that the property is available both for sale and for lease.

The Palace is located right in the historic center of the Angevin city, on the Decumanus Maximus, overlooking Santa Margherita Square, surrounded by the most representative and important buildings for their institutional role, such as the Government Palace, the Chamber of Nobles, Palazzo Camponeschi—now the Rectorate of the University of L’Aquila—and the magnificent Basilica of the Jesuit Fathers.