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Visit Palazzo Gallio in Gravedona, Lake Como
If you want to know how to visit Palazzo Gallio in Gravedona, contact us info@lovelakecomo.eu
The Story of Palazzo Gallio
When in 1580, the Cardinal and State Secretary of the papal throne, Tolomeo Gallio, was appointed of the fief of the Three Parishes by King Philip 2nd of Spain, he had a palace built over the remains of the ancient castle of Gravedona.
He laid the foundation stone between 1586 and 1587, and the historians G. Stampa in his Historical News attributed the project to Master Giacomo Curti of Gravedona. Anyway, the building was finished I 1607, the same year of the Cardinal’s death. The palace passed on to his nephews the Dukes D’Avito.
In 1634 came to Como Cardinal Ferdinand of Hapsburg, Infante (prince) of Spain and Governor of the State of Milan. He stood in town for five days and then he set sail toward the Upper Lake Larius. When he landed at Gravedona, he was a guest at the Palace of the Four Towers (Gallio), his first stop on his journey to Germany.
At that time, was the preferred stop for the nobles who were about to over pass the Alps, because its palace offered them a proper place where tor rest before facing the harsh Alpine passes.
In 1623 Orace Lodovesi, Duke of Fiano and General of the Roman Catholic Church, was guest of Duke D’Avito when together with 1500 soldiers and 500 horses was on his way to Valtellina to be entrusted with the Valley on behalf of the Pope to whom it was temporary given the Lordship.
On this Palace of Gravedona, the historian Gioseffo Della Torre Rezzonico wrote: “Henry of Rohan tried to ruin with fires and destructions both this Palace and the village in 1636. Nevertheless, the fire burned down only the roof, but it was not enough to destroy the great building. So it was restored to its previous splendour by Francesco Gallio, Duke of D’Avito, Count of Gravedona, who hosted there Cardinal Ferdinand, Prince of Spain and at the time of our ancestors Vittorio Amedeo, Prince of Piedmont, King of Cyprus , when he decided to sojourn here for drinking the waters of S. Moritz. The historian Roberto Rusca, seems to assert that the building of the palace of Gravedona was started by Battista Medici, brother of Gian Giacomo, although soon after he states that the beautiful palace was built by Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio…… To go back to the Palace of Gravedona, Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio did it in 1586”.
As for the habit of drinking the thermal waters of S. Moritz while sojourning at Gravedona, it seems that it was of high fashion within the rich nobles at that time. Nevertheless, Gallio Palace had never been utilized as a residential house either during the French or the Spanish occupation, as it had been utilized as a Hospital. Nowadays the palace is the seat of the Comunità Montana Valli del Lario e del Ceresio (Mountain Community of the Larius and Ceresio Valleys) and it has been enlisted as a National Monument.
The palace looks like a fortress of square plan with four angular towers, which reminds the ancient vocation chatelaine of the place. The two loggias that open on the lake front and on the mountain front belong to the Renaissance traditional Villas; the internal rooms open onto a central hall.
The palace was surrounded by a garden that today only stretches toward the mountain, and which was characterized by the presence of a great variety of Camellias trees as well as many exotic essence plants for which it was renowned since the 16th century. To remember this peculiarity, every year during the week before Ester, in the Palace is held a Camellias exhibition.
