Bergamo, Palazzo Moroni inaugurated. After three years of restoration, it opens fully to the public

FAI-Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano ETS and the Palazzo Moroni Museum Foundation are opening Palazzo Moroni. After the opening of the gardens and the ortaglia in June 2020, and that of four rooms with Baroque frescoes in September 2021, as part of the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Battista Moroni, whose masterpieces are preserved in these rooms, the seventeenth-century palace in the heart of Città Alta will be open to all visitors in full from Wednesday, November 22, 2023.

On this occasion, five additional rooms on the main floor, characterized by a nineteenth-century layout - Yellow Room, Pink Room, Blue Room, Chinese Parlour and Turkish Room - and the mezzanine, with the kitchenette and the apartment used until 2009 by Count Antonio Moroni, the last inhabitant of the mansion, complete the tour. Also inaugurated are renovated reception spaces, such as the ticket office with store, and new services and tools to accompany the visit, starting with a video story with immersive projections set up in the cucinone, which narrates, with the voice of Luca Micheletti, the history of the family and the palace.

Palazzo Moroni, the first urban palace acquired by the FAI, opens after three years of restoration work to secure, preserve and enhance it, which involved the gardens, extended with panoramic terraces at the foot of the civic Rocca and up to the ortaglia, two hectares of countryside in the heart of the city, and the interiors, extraordinarily preserved in the decorations, furnishings, objects and works of art from the family collection, which counts among its masterpieces three portraits by Giovanni Battista Moroni: The Portrait of Isotta Brembati, that of Giovanni Gerolamo Grumelli, better known as The Knight in Pink, and the Portrait of an Elderly Lady.

The palace was entrusted to FAI in 2019, following an agreement with the Fondazione Museo di Palazzo Moroni, owner of the palace, established in 2008 by Count Antonio Moroni (1919-2009) and still chaired by his daughter Lucretia, to pursue the goal of making it a collective heritage.

“It was in 2008 when Count Moroni gave to a foundation he created the family palace, with the garden, the amazing ortaglia (one-tenth of the entire upper Bergamo!) and the precious furnishings, thus depriving himself and his descendants of a prestigious property of incalculable value,” says Marco Magnifico, FAI President, “Lucretia, her father’s daughter in terms of clarity of vision and lucidity of purpose, completed her father’s work by proposing to FAI to ’absorb’ the family foundation of which she is now president. Antonio Moroni’s choice, as noble as those of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, Pasino Bagatti Valsecchi and Antonio and Marieda Boschi di Stefano, is part of the most civilized history of our country where there are still those who believe that a gesture in favor of the community is a point of honor for one’s own name and that of one’s family; and as such has therefore the right to be entrusted to the future and recounted exactly like the works of art and architecture that are the object of so much gift. In the sign of the best Italian tradition.”

“I would like to share with you the excitement of seeing open again the rooms of the palace that, for centuries, has belonged to my family; today after months of major restoration, those who enter will be able to rediscover the same rooms in which, my father and I, lived the happy years of our lives,” commented Lucretia Moroni, President of the Palazzo Moroni Museum Foundation. “The profound synergy that has been established between the Palazzo Moroni Museum Foundation and FAI has made it possible to crown my father’s wish, to make our home a common good for the citizens of Bergamo and for all those who would like to immerse themselves in the rediscovered splendor of the rooms of the Palazzo and its Gardens.”

Restoration work began in 2020. On June 27 and 28 of the same year, FAI opened the gardens and the ortaglia: an exceptional event, created as a tribute to Bergamo, one of the Italian cities most affected by Covid-19, with an opening dedicated to all healthcare personnel. After a year, work was completed on the part of the palace characterized by 17th-century frescoes, the subjects of which give their names to the rooms: the Hall of the Golden Age, the Hall of the Giants, the Hall of Hercules and the Hall of Jerusalem Delivered, created by the Cremasque painter Gian Giacomo Barbelli, which are among the earliest and most sumptuous examples of Baroque painting in Lombardy.

Restoration of the five rooms that open to the public on this occasion began at the end of 2022, the result of modifications that affected the palace around 1835, in preparation for Alessandro Moroni’s marriage to the Milanese noblewoman Giulia Resta (1838). The layout of these spaces, which are more intimate and cozy than the seventeenth-century ones, is dominated by precious silks, oriental and French ceramics, lacquered and empire-style furniture and fresco decorations that reproduce trompe-l’oeil stuccoes and alternate with imaginative subjects taking inspiration from the classical and exotic worlds.

The interventions, carried out thanks to the support of the Lombardy Region and contributions from numerous companies and individuals, made it possible to make the entire main floor and the entire mezzanine accessible and visitable. Electrical and security systems have been made, fixtures and flooring restored and preserved, and the necessary services adapted to the new museum function of the palace, which is also equipped with enhancement spaces. Despite the ongoing construction sites, the palace has always been partially open for visits.

Work also involved the gardens of Palazzo Moroni, with the replacement of trees and shrubs that were in a critical phytosanitary condition, the integration of ornamental plants in the flowerbeds, the pruning of fit yews and the creation of gravel paths to protect the lawns.

A long and complex construction site involved the palace’s movable property: furniture, decorative coverings, works of art and objects that make, in particular the 19th-century rooms that open to the public today, an authentic and intact testimony to the way of furnishing and living in a palace of the period. In agreement with the relevant Superintendency, a conservation plan has been initiated, with cataloguing, complete mapping and updated digital documentation, including with very high-resolution images of the artworks, carried out for the first time thanks to the collaboration with Haltadefinizione. Extensive restoration, carried out in collaboration with the La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center, was devoted to the textile apparatus, including antique silk tapestries from the Caserta manufactory and important upholstered furnishings, and all the clocks were restored to be put back into use.

In addition to restoration and conservation, FAI also provided for the integration and refurnishing of some spaces open to the public that did not retain their original layout: thanks to numerous donations to FAI of furnishings and objects from private individuals, the rooms were restored to their historic appearance, applying a philological criterion of integration where possible.

The restoration site was accompanied by studies and research coordinated by FAI, starting with the family’s historical archives, still kept in Palazzo Moroni, which have made it possible to update and expand knowledge about the family and the collection, as well as the palace and the neighborhood. From January 2024 a volume published by Skira will also be available, thanks to the contribution of Gallerie d’Italia: the actual guide to Palazzo Moroni.

Particular attention has been and will be given to the issue ofaccessibility thanks to tactile aids available to people with visual impairments and, starting in 2024, a guide in simplified language that will make the visit accessible also to people with intellectual disabilities.

On Sunday 19, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Palazzo Moroni will be open free of charge to the citizens of Bergamo, while on Monday 20, as part of FAI Days for Schools, there will be an opening dedicated entirely to students conducted by the “Apprentice Ciceroni” of the Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi of Bergamo. The restoration of Palazzo Moroni was carried out thanks to the decisive contribution of the Lombardy Region, as part of a specific collaboration agreement, the fundamental support of the Deutsche Post Foundation, the Associazione Amici del FAI and Friends of FAI, a U.S. organization that has been at the Foundation’s side for years in the care and enhancement of Italian heritage.

Thanks also to the generous support of FIMESA, Fugazza F.lli & C., Banca Sella, C.B.C Europe, the contribution of Fondazione Pomara Scibetta Arte Bellezza Cultura, Nespresso, The Ruth Stanton Foundation, Rulmeca, SIAD, and Fondazione Berti Onlus. Finally, thanks to the many private donors for their contributions to the restoration.

The inauguration of Palazzo Moroni takes place as part of the “Bergamo Brescia Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2023” event, with Intesa Sanpaolo and A2A as Main Partner, Brembo as System Partner, and Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane and SACBO as Area Partners. The Ministry of Culture and Regione Lombardia are institutional partners along with Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione della Comunità Bresciana and Fondazione della Comunità Bergamasca.

Palazzo Moroni will be open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tickets: Full 11 euros; Reduced 6-18 years and Students 19-25 years 5 euros; University students up to 25 years 3 euros; Family (2 adults and children 6/18 years) 28 euros; FAI members, Convention INTO - The International National Trust Organization, Convention Louvre - Soci Bienfaiteurs Amis du Louvre, Convention Abbonamento Musei, Persons with disabilities and accompanying person free of charge.

Pictured is the Yellow Room of Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo. Photo by Barbara Verduci ©FAI

Bergamo, Palazzo Moroni inaugurated. After three years of restoration, it opens fully to the public

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