Giuseppe Leopoldo Sanseverino (1676-1727), eleventh prince of Bisignano, chose the healthy air and lush nature of Acri to build an imposing and sumptuous summer residence, to which the popular saying attributed 365 rooms, one for each day of the year. The works were entrusted to Roberto Vangieri from Rogliano, an "architect and engineer" who was responsible for much of the construction work.
The nerve center of city life in the first half of the eighteenth century, the Palace was frequented by the most eminent personalities of the time; the Holy Angel of Acri, born Lucantonio FalconAnd (1669-1739), protector of the city and neighbor of the prince at the time (the Capuchin convent is a few dozen meters away), often went there to plead the causes of the latter first with Giuseppe and then with his son Luigi (1705-1772) .
Giuseppe Leopoldo Sanseverino (1676-1727), eleventh prince of Bisignano, chose the healthy air and lush nature of Acre to build an imposing residence, to which the popular saying attributed 365 rooms, one for each day of the year. Notable the halls on the main floor, frescoed by Donato Vitale between 1714 and 1718, the Council Hall and the mysterious Hall of Columns, whose entrance into the internal courtyard is adorned with two wall fountains and whose original destination is controversial.
Prince Louis, who settled in Acri on a permanent basis, was responsible for the construction of an enormous hunting reserve, whose walls, starting from the back of the building, climbed for kilometers across the Greek Sila until they touched the Ionian Sea in Rossano territory: an area that still maintains the popular toponym of "Hunting".
The halls on the main floor are noteworthy, with frescoes depicting the Rape of Proserpina and The Allegory of Time, which Donato Vitale built between 1714 and 1718, and the mysterious Sala delle Colonne on the ground floor, which overlooks the square-plan internal courtyard and occupies the entire east wing of the building. The enormous room is cut in half by a row of arches supported by eight stone columns in late sixteenth-century style and has forty-six niches on the longest walls whose original purpose is still controversial and would lead one to think of a pre-existing sacred building.
The meaning of the fresco on the ground floor, in what is currently the first room of the MACA Museum of Contemporary Art, is also mysterious, depicting strange clock-like dials that could refer to alchemical practices. Moreover, a regular visitor to the castle was the famous alchemist Raimondo di Sangro, prince of Sansevero and cousin of Luigi...
In the nineteenth century the family of the hero of Sapri settled in the palace, Giovan Battista Falcone, who spent his childhood within its walls.
Degraded and abandoned during the twentieth century, it was returned to citizens only in the 1980s, to undergo restoration work completed in 2000.
Today it is the Palace of Culture of Acri.
MACA
MACA, Museum of Contemporary Art, hosts the permanent exhibition dedicated to the artist of Acresian origins Silvio Vigliaturo and interesting exhibitions of art from all over the world, with a focus on contemporary Calabrian production.Museum of the Risorgimento
MACA, Museum of Contemporary Art, hosts the permanent exhibition dedicated to the artist of Acresian origins Silvio Vigliaturo and interesting exhibitions of art from all over the world, with a focus on contemporary Calabrian production.
2024 – Studio Marchianò – Publishing and communication