House of Podestà

The House of Podestà of Lonato stands in the middle of a monumental complex of great charm, inhabited until 1941 by Senator Ugo da Como who bought it after having bought it.

House of Podestà originally from the mid-fifteenth century, it was the seat of the mayor of the Serenissima Republic of Venice from 1441 until the end of the eighteenth century, when Napoleon ceded Venice to Austria; then the building passed to the Austrian state that made it a barracks, finally to the Municipality. In the early years of the twentieth century the lawyer Liberal Deputy Ugo Da Como bought the property at an auction and, aware of its historical value, had it restored by one of the greatest architects of the time in Brescia, Antonio Tagliaferri (1835-1909). With the restoration, the building was restored to its former glory, completed by furnishings and accessories at the height and transformed into a house-museum. Inside it also houses a collection of paintings ranging from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, a beautiful library that includes more than 50,000 volumes, rare specimens of the twelfth century, scrolls, antique prints, 470 manuscripts and letters by Ugo Foscolo.