MUSEUM
Palazzo Barbantini-Koch
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Photo by Eugenio Ciccone for Filomagazine
Palazzo Barbantini-Koch
Located on Corso della Giovecca, Palazzo Barbantini-Koch tells a different chapter in Ferrara’s architectural history. Built in the early twentieth century as the headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, it still preserves interiors and decorative features that reflect its original role as a prestigious institutional building.
Following a major renovation, the Palazzo has opened its rooms to art as the Ferrara home of La Galleria BPER, with a permanent collection and spaces dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
Barbantini-Koch Palace – source: Wikipedia
A Brief History
Palazzo Barbantini-Koch was built between 1907 and 1910, designed by Ferrara engineer Luigi Barbantini under the supervision of Roman architect Gaetano Koch, who also designed the Palazzo della Banca d’Italia in Rome.
Built as the new headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, the building was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style. Its monumental façade is arranged across three tiers of windows and embellished with white marble decorations, while the main entrance and balcony are also made of marble.
The Palazzo was inaugurated in 1910 by King Victor Emmanuel III and remained closely connected to the history of Ferrara’s banking institution. Its interiors still preserve details that reflect this long history, including stucco and wall decorations, mother-of-pearl inlays and Venini chandeliers from Murano, alongside rooms featuring distinctive twentieth-century design.
The New BPER Cultural Hub
Today, the history of the Palazzo meets the story of Ferrara’s art. Its renovated spaces are home to La Galleria BPER’s Cultural Hub, which includes a permanent collection as well as an area dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
The permanent exhibition, “Uno scrigno di storia. Arte a Ferrara tra passato e presente” (A Treasure Chest of History. Art in Ferrara Between Past and Present), brings together works from the BPER Corporate Collection, tracing several centuries of art connected with the city. The journey begins with Ferrara Renaissance artists such as Domenico Panetti, Ortolano, Garofalo and Girolamo da Carpi, and continues through Carlo Bononi and Giuseppe Zola to Gaetano Previati, Filippo de Pisis and Achille Funi.
A visit to Palazzo Barbantini-Koch therefore brings together two stories under one roof: that of the building itself, originally created as the headquarters of one of the city’s financial institutions, and that of Ferrara’s artistic heritage, told through the works now displayed in its rooms.
May you not know...
A TWENTIETH-CENTURY PALAZZO INSPIRED BY THE RENAISSANCE. Palazzo Barbantini-Koch was built in the early twentieth century, but its designers chose a Neo-Renaissance style for the new headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio. The result is a building that looks back to the architecture of the past while belonging to a much more recent chapter in Ferrara’s urban history.
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