What to see · Carpi

More places of interest

• Musei di Palazzo dei Pio

  The castle or palace of the Pio, of the family of that name, is a heterogeneous group of buildings of different periods, on piazza dei Martiri and piazzale Re Astolfo, in the medieval heart of Carpi. Today it houses the municipal historical archive, the civic museums, the «Castello dei ragazzi» and, occasionally, art exhibitions.

  What to see

  The complex, once surrounded by moats, is made up of parts built between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries and was inhabited by the Pio from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century; the decisive impetus was given by Alberto III Pio, who in the sixteenth century transformed the medieval fortress into a Renaissance residence. The long façade on the square has a Renaissance look, with remains of frescoes by Giovanni del Sega, of 1506, on the upper floor; in the centre rises the seventeenth-century clock tower, to the north the cylindrical bastion called the torre dell'Uccelliera, of 1480, next to the older crenellated tower of Passerino Bonacolsi, of 1320, and at the other end the great tower of Galasso Pio, built by 1450 and decorated with terracottas and pinnacles. From the vestibule under the clock tower you reach a large central courtyard inspired by Bramante's manner, porticoed on four sides, with round arches carried on marble columns; the terracotta decorations were restored in 1874.

  On the piano nobile the monumental apartment includes the Salone dei Mori, inspired by Este halls such as that of Schifanoia and decorated by Giovanni del Sega in 1506, and the chapel frescoed by Bernardino Loschi with Stories of Mary, Alberto Pio and his family, with four polychrome glazed terracotta roundels by Andrea della Robbia showing the Evangelists; then come the stanza dei Trionfi, with frescoes by Loschi inspired by Petrarch's Triumphs, the stanza Ornata, the stanza dell'Amore, the Sala dei cervi and the stanza degli Stemmi. The picture gallery, being reorganised, includes Mattia Preti's Vengeance of Procne, Jacopo Palma il Giovane's Allegory of Vice and Virtue, Scarsellino's Annunciation, Denijs Calvaert's Baptism of Christ and works by Vincenzo Catena and Emilian painters. In some small rooms the Museo della xilografia italiana has been housed since 1936, dedicated to Ugo da Carpi, with original works on rotation, printing blocks and a nineteenth-century press; on the second floor the Museo della città gathers material from the area, from the archaeological section, with prehistoric, Etruscan-Po, Celtic, Roman and medieval finds, to sections on the city's lords, on nineteenth-century French bronzes, on scagliola table-tops of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the Risorgimento, on rural life and on industrial Carpi, with particular attention to textiles and Anna Molinari's creations for Blumarine.

  Visiting

  The complex is on piazza dei Martiri, in Carpi, and has a dedicated official website. The sources consulted give no opening hours or fees: check them. The municipal library, on piazzale Re Astolfo, is entered from the courtyard; it keeps about thirty thousand volumes and a rare collection of old works and incunabula from the Library of the Franciscan Fathers.

  Our editors' tip

  In the chapel, Vincenzo Catena's Annunciation, once on the altar, is now in another room of the museum: ask where.

Some links may earn BigItalia a commission, at no extra cost to you.