House Belpietro, called of Carmagnola

It is a massive building that stands on the “royal” road without special architectural elements but which imposes itself on sight only for its size, exceptional for its time.

House Belpietro, called of Carmagnola Castenedolo: This for the facade on the road; instead, inside, the gracefulness of the wide loggia that overlooks the portico confirms that this was the home of a high-level person in the sec. XV. In fact, it is not easy on the fifteenth century principle to think of a house that is already so large and can not surmise that it was built in later period. On whose behalf? The history of the house, as we shall see, marks an immediate decline after the fall of Carmagnola. The upper loggia is always the most beautiful detail of the building because the portico of five bays has had to undergo a profound alteration for static reasons. It had six agile columns with leafy capitals, but unfortunately on the beginning of our century it was realized that the columns were dangerously released outwards. We had therefore to collect the beautiful columns, we would say encapsulate, in mighty masonry pillars. The two of the central furnace, which is wider than the other four, are still half-exposed. It seems, from a painting of the last century, that the original wall was marked, as used, by graphites and fake bolognini and then the modern builder thought to take up that motif. Undoubtedly the contrast between the rough and massive porch and the overhanging loggia is strong. The lodge was ten little bells but the two in the evening had to be walled up. Also here the columns have foliated capitals. The ceiling is beamed approached while the porch and the entrance hall have beautiful vaults. The ground floor plan is very simple because in the evening and in the morning of the entrance hall there are two very large rooms with small secondary neighbors.. La sala a sera presnta una ampia volta a ombrello originale, ed era questa la “caminada”. The morning room, also a large one, had a well-decorated face in the eighteenth century. There are two staircases: one inside that goes up to the hall in the evening and is steep with the steps of brick terracotta in the coast and this should be the roioginal staircase. Instead, in the evening of the portico, closed by a beautiful gate in wrought iron, a staircase with two ramps rises, built in the seventeenth century with the arrival on the loggia. In that century it was impossible not to build a staircase. It was at that time that the great hall, corresponding to the one in the morning on the ground floor, was very well decorated in the vault; near it there are small rooms with well-decorated flat ceilings.

Pandolfo Maltesta had a holiday home in Castenedolo and nothing prevents us from believing that this important building, then outside the castle, was the one he started. Once the Malatesta had left, its properties became the property of the new lords, first the Visconti and then Venice, which very well republic may have assigned this property to its leader. In fact, the carmagnola, after the victory of Maclodio, received as a gift from the Republic a palace on the Grand Canal, a large commission and the title of lord of Castenedolo, who had already been of Brunoro Gambara. The carmagnola fell, its assets of Castenedolo were auctioned to citizens of the country and it is presumed that this fate has also touched this beautiful house. But which of the families who then had the chance to buy the house? The richest and with vast properties, although divided into various branches, was that of the Rodengo, one of which, Gerolamo q. In 1517, Carlo declares, in addition to land and house in Valbona, also a house in the castle and his son Ottaviano in 1568, but then this branch, before extinction, no longer has assets in Castenedolo while the other branches have large properties of the Rodenga and of S. Giustina outside the castle. What is certain is that in the seventeenth century the house is owned by the Zaniboni. According to what was written by A. Monti, they were of an ancient family, belonging to the Guelphs, who were admitted to the offices and honors of the city on 22 February 1529 in person of “Betinus de Zanonibus”. The family, at the beginning of the century XVI was to be in precarious economic situation because the aforementioned Bettino (. 1487) claims to be the “spitiar all’spitale grando”, to have merchandise for L. 400, but “the vases and the furniture are of spitalli”. At that time he already had some land in Castenedolo; then business is going well and thirty years later, with his wife Bernardina and four children, he is already in a good position. ………. Heir of the substance Zaniboni was the cousin Gio. Paolo Luzzago (n.1685) son of Camillo, of that branch that lived in S. Pietro and Marcellino between the Chizzola and the Gambara. Perhaps Gio. Paolo was adopted by the brothers Lodovico and Ottaviano, sons of Marta Luzzago q. Gio. Paolo, made it is that he in 1723 makes a complaint on his own in which he claims to be heir, etc. etc. and to possess therefore the house of Brescia to S.M. Calchera and about 500 centuries in Castenedolo with the “casa da padrone in Contrada Mantovana”, with eight local territories and ten on the upper floor, with courtyard, vegetable garden, etc. bordering at noon with the main road, in the morning the reasons of the Parish, upstream Alvento Alventi to serea Faustino Belpietro and Maffeo Mesana. That branch of the Luzzago became extinct with Gio. Paolo at the beginning of the nineteenth century and perhaps it was then that the neighbors Belpietro enlarged their property by buying this palace of which they are still owners.

House Belpietro

House Belpietro Historical sources Fausto Lechi, “Dimore Bresciane, in cinque secoli di storia”