Salò Palace Restoration Plans Highlight Cultural Heritage and Structural Updates

The ongoing restoration work of the Municipality of Salò continues, the ancient “Palazzo del Capitano,” which was begun in 1386 and rebuilt in 1560 and 1905. The 2001 budget forecast (already presented to the City Council but not yet approved) allocates four hundred and fifty million lire to continue the extraordinary maintenance intervention of the palace initiated in 2000, which among other things has restored the dignity of the scenic “staircase of honor,” with the splendid ceiling frescoed by the Salodian Angelo Landi (1879-1944) depicting the “Glory of the Magnificent Homeland.” It is now necessary to carry out some consolidation, redevelopment, and rationalization works of the other representative spaces within the municipal seat.

Planned interventions and restoration works

“The intervention – reads the summary of public investments planned for 2001 – can be divided into the following phases: structural consolidation of the staircase on the west side of the palace; reconstruction of the ceiling of the Commerce Office; reconstruction of the Provveditori’s hall; various maintenance works and internal signage.” Of particular importance is the redevelopment of the Sala dei Provveditori, which, following the recent decision to use the Sala del Caminetto at Palazzo Fantoni as a provisional venue for the newly born study center dedicated to the Italian Social Republic, will become the reference setting for meetings and public initiatives.

The Culture Department has also taken steps, with the approval of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, to develop a restoration project for the wooden tablets in the Provveditori Hall, as well as for restoring the decorative friezes present there. The 2001 budget forecast also allocates about twenty million lire for the recovery of “cultural works,” particularly the restoration of paintings and frescoes in the Palazzo Comunale and other public buildings.

Artworks and Historical Heritage

Particularly interesting from an artistic point of view are the works found in the council chamber, decorated by the Salodian Giacomo Gentili and, on the coffered ceiling and shelves with gilding and carvings, by Giovanni Andrea Bertanza. Bertanza, a pupil of Palma il Giovane, painted the ceiling in 1617. The work depicts “Christ in glory with saints Mark and Angel, the armor-bearer angel, and Benaco.” The same room houses a bust of Gasparo da Salò (1540-1609), the inventor or, more probably, the “improver” of the violin.

The old name of the Salodian Municipality, “Palazzo del Capitano,” dates back to the Venetian domination era. In 1334, Maderno was elected as the capital of the Magnificent Homeland (which would become Salò in 1377) and the Riviera came under Venice’s protection, which appointed its own governor to lead the territory. The governor resided in Salò and also held the position of “Captain of the Riviera.” Bongianni Gratarolo, in the famous “Historia della Riviera di Salò,” published posthumously in 1599, describes the current Salodian municipality as follows: “In the square, above some porticos shaded by seven pillars with seven square Ionic columns, there are some rooms where a separate Council of the men of Salò gathers, and where a Pawnshop is operated that lends money to the poor.”