Palazzo Cesena is a historic palace in the centre of Modugno, in late Renaissance style, built in 1691 by Pietro Anello Cesena. It leans against the building that must have been the main core of the Motta, or else stands on its foundations: the very shape of the palace suggests it, made of two parts set at an angle to each other. It rises on three levels. From the Calò-Cesena it passed to the Pilolli family and finally to the Caporusso.
What to see
On the ground floor is a large doorway with a round arch, and to its right is the entrance to the chapel dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin, with the inscription «DEIPARAE VIRGINIS NATIVITATI. CESENA 1691». Above the chapel the front has two rows of rectangular windows and, at the top, what remains of an old bell gable. The Caporusso had placed in the chapel two statues of the physician saints Cosmas and Damian, made in Naples: after the chapel was deconsecrated they were moved to the church of the Carmine.
In the eastern part you can see an altana, a roof loggia, with a wide two-light opening, divided by a small column with a leaf capital and surmounted by a round opening: because of its form it has been declared a national monument. Above the ground floor runs a balustrade decorated with friezes of vases and masks, with the Calò-Cesena coat of arms at its centre.
Visiting
The palace is seen from the street; any access to the interiors should be checked on the spot.
Our editors' tip
The coat of arms on the balustrade reads like this: a lion rampant, a tree, symbol of the Calò to whom the Cesena were related, and a greyhound holding a Farnese lily, as a sign of gratitude for benefits received. The Cesena had come to Modugno from Varese Ligure between 1524 and 1557; one of them, Carlo, was mayor in 1808, and in the early nineteenth century the family died out into the Longo.
