Museo Civico di Palazzo Chiericati

Since 1855, Palazzo Chiericati has been the historic home of the Civic Museum. The palace was designed in 1550 by Andrea Palladio for Girolamo Chiericati and completed at the end of the 17th century. The Municipality of Vicenza acquired it in 1839, intending to house the city's art collections. After being restored and expanded by architects Berti and Miglioranza, the Civic Museum was inaugurated on August 18, 1855.

The Palace

On the ground floor of the Palladian palace, you can admire the 16th-century fresco decorations by Domenico Brusasorzi (Sala del Firmamento and Sala d’Ercole) and Battista Zelotti (Sala del Concilio degli Dei), embellished with white and gilded stucco by Bartolomeo Ridolfi and grotesque motifs by Eliodoro Forbicini.

On the main floor, you can admire the 16th-century frescoes by Domenico Brusasorzi (Sala delle Virtù Civili) and Battista del Moro (Sala della Colonna Traiana), while the 17th-century section boasts wonderful ceilings, featuring, amidst a profusion of white and gilded stucco, paintings by Cristoforo Menarola (Apotheosis of the Chiericati Family and tondi with allegorical figures) and Bartolomeo Cittadella (Apollo on Parnassus with the Lyre and Five Muses and other four Muses in the corners).

Reopened in October 2012, the basement revealed the foundations of the ancient “Chiericati houses” dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, as well as the rooms once used by the servants, such as the kitchens and cellars, where the fireplace, well, and barrel staircase can still be seen today. Also visible in the basement is the Roggia del Collo, a secondary branch of the Bacchiglione River with a barrel vault dating back to the 13th century, which bordered the western edge of the so-called Isola area, where Palazzo Chiericati stands.

Brief history of the museum

In 1820, the City of Vicenza received a deposit from the Congregazione di Carità (Charity Congregation) for some works from the Church of San Bartolomeo, which was about to be transformed into a Civil Hospital. These works, later purchased by the Municipality, thus became the first nucleus of the civic art collections.

In the years immediately following, this acquisition was widened by many other donations and bequests: among the most notable are the bequest of Paolina Porto Godi of 90 paintings (1825-1831); the bequest of Girolamo Egidio di Velo, which also included archaeological finds from the Baths of Caracalla (1831); the bequest of Carlo Vicentini dal Giglio of 364 paintings (1834); and the bequest of 33 drawings by Andrea Palladio donated by Gaetano Pinali (1838).

In 1835, the works, until then housed in the Town Hall next to Basilica Palladiana, were transferred to the Salone dei Rossi in San Marcello (now Aula Magna of Liceo Pigafetta), but it was immediately clear that even that space would not be enough to house the civic collections, which were destined to grow significantly.

Thus, Palazzo Chiericati, which at the time was in a state of serious disrepair, was purchased in 1839. Restored and expanded by architects Berti and Miglioranza, the palace opened to the public as a Civic Museum on August 18, 1855.

The new Museo Civico di Palazzo Chiericati housed artistic, natural history, and archaeological collections, and, from the late 19th century, also the historical collections, which became part of the civic heritage thanks to the first gift from Gabriele Fantoni in 1893.

The constant growth of the collections, which continues to this day thanks to the generosity of citizens and patrons, led the Municipality to purchase Villa Guiccioli Ambellicopoli in 1936, where the historical collections were moved.

The Natural History section, initially housed in the building adjacent to Palazzo Chiericati (now the twentieth-century wing), was bombed in 1945 and reopened in 1958. The collections were then transferred in 1991, along with the archaeological ones, to the Chiostri di Santa Corona complex. Since then, Palazzo Chiericati has been the designated home for the art collections (paintings, sculptures, drawings, numismatics, textiles, and applied arts).