Description
Palazzo Bricherasio is an elegant neoclassical palace in the center of Turin, on Via Lagrange, a few steps from Piazza San Carlo and Via Roma. It has a storybook history: here, in 1899, a group of aristocrats signed the founding act of Fiat.
Until the 20th century it was the home of the Counts Cacherano di Bricherasio. In 1855 the palace passed to the family, and Count Luigi Baldassarre had it remodeled in neoclassical style to a design by Barnaba Panizza. It was he who gave it today's sober look: square plan, light gray façades, windows with pediments and rusticated half-columns.
The most famous story is that of Emanuele di Bricherasio, fascinated by the mechanical inventions of France and Germany. On July 1, 1899 he summoned Turin notables to the palace and, in his study on the first floor, signed, among the founding members, the act of a company that would be called F.I.A.T. He became its vice president.
The episode was portrayed by Lorenzo Delleani in a painting commissioned by Emanuele himself. He died in 1904, at just thirty-five, in circumstances that were never clarified.
His sister Sofia, a painter and Delleani's favorite pupil, made the palace one of the liveliest cultural salons in the city. The writer Edmondo De Amicis, the sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi and the musician Arturo Toscanini all passed through.
Sofia, the last of the family and without heirs, left the palace at her death, in 1950, to Don Orione's Little Work of Divine Providence. It became an embroidery school for disadvantaged girls and then, until the mid-1980s, a technical school for mechanical engineers.
Inside, the finest piece is the staircase of the putti, in gilded wood and brass, by Barnaba Panizza. It survived the transformations, as did a couple of 18th-century-style salons decorated by Rodolfo Morgari, while a large elliptical staircase with a glass elevator is an addition from the restorations of the early 1990s.
In 1994 the palace was restored and became the seat of the Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio, with internationally significant exhibitions for about fifteen years. For one of them, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the entire grand staircase.
On the north side, three tall arched windows open onto a balcony with the coat of arms of the Cacherano di Bricherasio. In the patio in front, covered by a polyhedral steel-and-glass structure, there is a café: a lively contrast with the 19th-century palace behind it.
Don't miss
• The staircase of the putti.
• Rodolfo Morgari's salons.
• The balcony with the coat of arms.
Did you know?
• From 1849 to 1851 the palace housed the writer Giovanni Berchet, who died here in exile: a plaque commemorates him.
• The residence's garden disappeared in the 1930s, when Via Roma was rebuilt.
Until the 20th century it was the home of the Counts Cacherano di Bricherasio. In 1855 the palace passed to the family, and Count Luigi Baldassarre had it remodeled in neoclassical style to a design by Barnaba Panizza. It was he who gave it today's sober look: square plan, light gray façades, windows with pediments and rusticated half-columns.
The most famous story is that of Emanuele di Bricherasio, fascinated by the mechanical inventions of France and Germany. On July 1, 1899 he summoned Turin notables to the palace and, in his study on the first floor, signed, among the founding members, the act of a company that would be called F.I.A.T. He became its vice president.
The episode was portrayed by Lorenzo Delleani in a painting commissioned by Emanuele himself. He died in 1904, at just thirty-five, in circumstances that were never clarified.
His sister Sofia, a painter and Delleani's favorite pupil, made the palace one of the liveliest cultural salons in the city. The writer Edmondo De Amicis, the sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi and the musician Arturo Toscanini all passed through.
Sofia, the last of the family and without heirs, left the palace at her death, in 1950, to Don Orione's Little Work of Divine Providence. It became an embroidery school for disadvantaged girls and then, until the mid-1980s, a technical school for mechanical engineers.
Inside, the finest piece is the staircase of the putti, in gilded wood and brass, by Barnaba Panizza. It survived the transformations, as did a couple of 18th-century-style salons decorated by Rodolfo Morgari, while a large elliptical staircase with a glass elevator is an addition from the restorations of the early 1990s.
In 1994 the palace was restored and became the seat of the Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio, with internationally significant exhibitions for about fifteen years. For one of them, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the entire grand staircase.
On the north side, three tall arched windows open onto a balcony with the coat of arms of the Cacherano di Bricherasio. In the patio in front, covered by a polyhedral steel-and-glass structure, there is a café: a lively contrast with the 19th-century palace behind it.
Don't miss
• The staircase of the putti.
• Rodolfo Morgari's salons.
• The balcony with the coat of arms.
Did you know?
• From 1849 to 1851 the palace housed the writer Giovanni Berchet, who died here in exile: a plaque commemorates him.
• The residence's garden disappeared in the 1930s, when Via Roma was rebuilt.