Palace Azzola Guicciardi – Ponte in Valtellina, Sondrio -XVI Century (1548).
Notifica n. 345 del 28 giugno 2005
The old town of Ponte retains a large number of homes and noble palaces and is thus still valid description of Leonardo Borgese: “We enter into Ponte, country but not absurd logic, which should be all described stone by stone, house by house , palace to palace. Ponte is one body, a conglomerate natural and artistic, a nest of cells, a convent and a fortress […]. “ The sequence of the houses of the same name Guicciardi long road brings us back to the sixteenth century. The ancient maps of the family speak of a Guizzardus who spent the Alps with Charlemagne in June 773 and “… maritossi in Ponte et quivi prese dimora” The residence, which overlooks via Chiuro was the first and main residence of the family. The first documentation of the building, then owned by John de Guizzardis in the region “in domos illorum de Guizzardis” dates back to 1493; his son Antonio in 1539 after having bought other land nearby building a “domus nova” next to “domibus antiquis … subtus Ecclesiam Sancti Mauritii” In the second half of ‘500 the palace buy the noble grandeur that still retains thanks to his brothers John and Marco Antonio Maria, sons of Antonio, with work witnessed also the dates engraved on a beam of the first floor (MDXLVIII namely 1548, to see photo side) and the panel’s central stua (1579). The brothers were extraordinary characters of culture: both graduates in Padua in 1540 and 1543, was the first man of law, while the second in that university taught geography and was therefore scholar of scripture, history and Latin. The inventory of 1601, the death of Giovanni Maria, describes the building in features that we see today. The palace is under the bridge that connected to a barn, with a front gate with stone lintels and windows fitted with artistic hell, the first of them with ornaments same as those Besta’s Palace in Teglio. Also on the facade of Via Chiuro, below the eaves, is a beautiful frieze with a monochrome sirens, badges and wanted to noble families, Valtellina and not, linked to Guicciardi: Parravicini, Quadrio, Odescalchi, Besta. The installation of the Palace, along with traces of frescoes recently (2000) found in rooms, suggests bringing the building at Palazzo Besta, including the relationship between the two families (Andrea Guicciardi had married Hippolyta Alberti, widow of Azzo I Besta, and the stepson Azzo II had followed the construction Teglio of). In the sixteenth century was also around the body via Guicciardi, with crowning of the lunettes alternate where oculi and frescoes with mythological figures. The prospectus south-east, downstream, also presents a fresh one décor, linked to the presence of the dovecote. In the eighteenth century the need for new space moves the owners of the Palace to an extension, in the wake of that tradition is limited to a simple new building across the street, connected to the oldest by a second overpass. In the second half century engineer Antonio Camillo Quadrio the latest restructuring plan that envisages the enlargement of aid to east and construction of an internal staircase to access the first floor with the killing of the external one. After about 40 years of neglect the current owner, Marco Azzola Guicciardi, son of Maria Vittoria Guicciardi, last descendent of the “enrichi”, takes care since 1998, with his wife Laura, recovery by providing rehabilitation and restoration of the structure, with the roof and facades, and the ground floor with two courts, in strict compliance with the original building. During the work the discovery of rich frescoes that crown all the rooms on the first floor.
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