Capitoliumart s.r.l.

Brescia, a town of ancient mansions, a patrimony still to be discovered. Here is an unusual opportunity: the Cigola-Fenaroli Mansion, which stands out between Via Carlo Cattaneo and Piazza Tebaldo Brusato.

It is among the most important: the two facades clearly reveal the different epochs: sixteenth century that of Via Cattaneo, with an off-centre portal, characterized by two imposing telamons; seventeenth century that which looks unto Piazza Tebaldo Brusato. The whole, is, however, in harmony, both for unity of volume and for cuntinuity of the sixteenth century modules also in the seventeenth century section.

On entering from Via Cattaneo an elegant portico presents itself and, then, a courtyard which goes back to the dawning of the sixteenth century - perhaps still to the last decades of the fifteenth century - with three sides made up each of four very elegant spans positioned on high pillars.

From the portico access is had to the great staircase which leads to the Gailery, derived from a closed loggia, with a woolpanel ceiling carved with rosettes and cornices: all in the sixteenth century Brescian style.

Of great relief and rareness for Brescia is the ceiling of the adjacent great hall, a true caisson of carved wod, with great richness and variety of motifs - a decidedly unusual style - which is not to be found again in other mansions of the town, making one think of Fausto Lechi and of the intervention of craftsmen - artists who came from outside the town.

The airy dining-room is decorated with three landscape paintings, enclosed by false pilaster strips, representing - with freedom of the artist - three holiday places of the Cigola family in the province of Brescia.

Other rooms present caisson ceilings, finely carved, with decorations and frescos by famous artists among which Sante Cattaneo and Carlo Frigerio to name but two.

The magnificent building erected, as mentioned, in the XVI and XVII centuries, by the Cigola Counts of Muslone, passed on extinction of the family to the noble Fenaroli family. In the history of the noble Cigola family tradition has it that, in this mansion, Pierre du Tenail, the Baiardo, a fearless and highly reputed knight, was given hospitality and taken care of until healed after being wounded during the pillage of 1512.