Another historic building in Cremona is for sale: the Schinchinelli Martini building in via Cadolini 20. The advert appeared on “Lux for sale”, an agency in Brescia, a large brokerage company for prestigious properties and residences. The selling price is 5 million 800 thousand euros. The square meters are 4,510. So after the palace of the former Austrian Prefecture in via Beltrami (read here), the Cattaneo palace in via Oscasali (read here) here comes onto the market another historic palace dear to the ancient Cremonese nobility. On the base of the portal of the palace (on the right looking at it) a plaque reads in Latin: “Ancestral residence built by Alessandro and Cralo Schinchinelli in 1588. Giuseppe father and Alessandro son amplified it in more elegant forms in 1762″. A palace in the heart of Cremona famous for having hosted Napoleon during his visit to Cremona and Francis I, Emperor of Austria. Over the years, the building has hosted various Cremonese institutions such as the Academy of Arms or the Leonardo Artistic Group.
On the “Lux for sale” website we read: “The historic and prestigious palace of the noble Schinchinelli family was built in 1588 and enlarged in 1762 and reflects the history, art and culture of the city in its architectural elements. The noble building with a decorative architectural style characteristic of the epochal passage between the baroque and the neoclassical, presents itself with a sober and elegant façade, a monumental entrance door in white stone and ashlar on the windows on the ground floor, while the elevations of the main floor are decorated by windows crowned with alternating triangular and curved gables. Inside the building there is a series of courtyards. The main courtyard is delimited on the front side by a serliana portico with lowered arches, while on the south side by a wall that divides it from the garden”.
“In the hallway, the grand and severe reception staircase opens on the right, with a double flight, illuminated by the windows, it occupies both floors in full height and leads into the atrium of the main floor, the heart of the welcome. interiors are characterized by gilded and stuccoed wooden doors, ceilings and false ceilings decorated with paintings and stuccos of notable effect typical of the palaces revisited between 1700 and 1800. The most important rooms boast finely crafted furnishings, bas-reliefs, marble fireplace and decorations grotesque. the agency website continues –Furthermore, there is no shortage of frescoes from the eighteenth century. The Tapestry Hall is interesting, embellished with famous Brussels artefacts with stories from the life of Ezzelino da Romano, as well as decorations, fake pilasters and spirals of foliage and lacunar on a blue background in the vault. Other rooms follow, such as the Dining Room, the rooms furnished with canopy beds including the “Napoleon” room with Empire style furnishings, so-called because Napoleon Bonaparte apparently found hospitality there during his stop in Cremona on 10 June 1805. follow, the chapel with altar, the library, the ballroom and other lounges. The prestigious palace presents evidence of having hosted Francis I, Emperor of Austria and his wife Maria Ludovica d’Este in 1815. To date the Palace is divided into various real estate units with different intended uses and some portions of the building are income, including some rooms used by a clinic and those of the former stables occupied by an elegant restaurant“.
