PALAZZO BELGIOJOSO, LECCO Palazzo Belgiojoso, Lecco

Palazzo Belgiojoso is the heart of the Polo Museale Urbano Lecchese, housing the archaeological, historical and natural history museum, and an interesting astronomical observatory with an 8-meter dome.

The museum center also includes Villa Manzoni, Palazzo delle Paure and the ancient Torre Viscontea. Imagine, the latter is the only building forming part of the ancient medieval walls that survived demolition in the 18th century.

When you visit the museum, you will be able to admire both the spacious rooms of the palace and the beautiful arcade within the courtyard and the large garden but let me tell you a little about its history.

It all began with its construction in 1772 at the behest of Marquis Giacomo Locatelli. The initial building was a country house with a U-shaped floor plan and a large garden.

Twenty years later, in 1794, it was bought by a noblewoman as beautiful and rich as she was unfortunate: Giovanna Elisabetta Mellerio.

She was the wife of a prince, Rinaldo Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso d'Este, from whom she had just separated, despite being only 20 years old.

She never managed to inhabit her beautiful palace: first it was expropriated by Napoleon's troops and shortly after, when she was only 22 years of age, a much worse enemy, death, came along and took all her dreams away.

The palace was then inherited by her husband, the Prince of Belgiojoso, whose name the palace still bears today.

After him, this noble residence had several owners, until in 1927 when it became the seat of Lecco's civic museums.

I bid you farewell with an interesting fact: the name Belgiojoso originated in what is now the municipality of the same name in the province of Pavia where Galeazzo Visconti, lord of those lands, had his castle built in the 14th century, which he liked to call 'Gioioso'.

Continuously embellished with new ornaments, it was later renamed 'Bel Gioioso' and over time the municipality and the successors of the Visconti family, the Counts Barbiano, from whom Prince Rinaldo Alberico, husband of Mellerio, was descended, also took this name.