Palazzo Giovanelli

In the heart of Italy, Palazzo Giovanelli rises with a quiet, brick-faced dignity, its three storeys unadorned by the flamboyance one might expect of the Baroque. The brick portal, however, tells a different story: stone bases, a keystone, corbels, and a carved eagle lend it gravitas. The double-leaf wooden door opens onto an entrance hall with a lowered barrel vault, its line emphasised by arches. Stone steps climb beneath an original wrought-iron balustrade, the stairwell crowned by a false vault with an oval frame.

The first floor holds three rooms with painted grotesque vaults; two of these extend their decoration to the walls. Upstairs, the grand reception hall is the set-piece, its double vault resting on a curvilinear Baroque cornice. Beside it, a private chapel, its own lowered vault adorned with stucco and Corinthian pilasters, contains an altar of stucco and plaster. Below, the cellars reveal brick foundations with cross vaults and the sealed mouths of tufa caves, remnants of an older, subterranean world.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.