Aosta · Italy
Palazzo Roncas
In the early seventeenth century Pierre-Léonard Roncas, secretary of state to the Duke of Savoy, had a palace built here without precedent in Aosta: inner courtyard, superimposed loggias, the proportions of a court city. He was a man who had risen, and he wished it to be seen. The stone is local, but the language is that of the late Piedmontese Renaissance: proof that this valley, so readily imagined as isolated, received architects, fashions and ambitions as anywhere else did. A palace is always also a message, and this one declared: I count now.
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Who was Roncas?
A nobleman from the valley who rose to high office at the Savoyard court between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including secretary of state.
Can you see the courtyard?
The palace hosts cultural activities and the courtyard is often open during exhibitions. It is the best part of the building.
Why is it unusual for Aosta?
Because the town was mostly medieval tower houses and plain stone building. A palace with loggias was a new language here.
Where it is
More stories in Aosta
- Adret and envers
- When the railway arrived
- Arch of Augustus
- Regional Archaeological Museum
- The villages the city swallowed
- The Battle of the Queens
- Aosta Cathedral
- Church of Santo Stefano