As underlined across multiple works by Paolo Carpeggiani, the Ducal Palace of Mantua is an architectural complex created across a vast time-span, extending from the Middle Ages to the late Renaissance. The buildings are linked by streets, squares, courts and gardens: a veritable city within the city, to all intents and purposes, as it appeared to the Baron de Montesquieu, when he visited Mantua in 1729.

At the death of Federico II Gonzaga, in 1540, it was made of a series of building sites barely connected to each other; the Gonzaga residence acquired its characteristic appearance of a “palace in the form of a city” (palazzo in forma di città) in between the years of the regency, held in particular by Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga (from 1540) and the Dukedom of Guglielmo Gonzaga (d. 1587).

The chief reason for this remarkable transformation can be traced to the radical changes the Principality underwent in its institutions and in its economic policy as the result of a series of surgically designed reforms, to transform the Duchy into an absolutist State. The Palace had to meet the numerous needs of the new state organisation, while also providing a prestigious and functional venue for the celebration of court rites, both secular and religious.

Giovan Battista Bertani, who succeeded Giulio Romano as the prefetto delle fabbriche (lit: prefect of construction works) and occupied this position from 1549 to 1576, gave momentum to the construction of the Ducal Palace complex. We owe to him the first permanent court theatre and the Guglielmo Gonzaga’s apartment in the New Court. The most demanding of the tasks carried out by Bertani is without a doubt the Palatine Church of Santa Barbara. The temple was to occupy a key position in the Prince’s city, a fact chiefly underlined by the presence of the monumental bell-tower.

At Bertani’s death, the area in front of Santa Barbara was still shapeless: it was Bernardo Facciotto who, in 1581, gave a proper form to this space. His design, which is attested by three drawings, envisaged a three-sided corridor-cum-loggia, but the original appearance of the church square was radically modified in 1780, when Paolo Pozzo added the botteghe for the annual fair.

Once Santa Barbara had been completed, work soon got underway on the canon’s house: the project was entrusted to Pompeo Pedemonte, who designed a large quadrangular building with an internal colonnaded courtyard. Work on the site came to a halt shortly after Guglielmo’s death and was never resumed. The only part of the building to be completed was the one facing the cortile del Pallone. Quite unadorned, the building is of remarkable character, featuring seven, perfectly identical lodgings, located between the two upper units, reserved for high-ranking members of the clergy. A fine example of sixteenth century modular construction.

*See e.g., L’architettura dal Bertani al Viani, in Il Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, a cura di G. Algeri, Mantova, Sometti, 2003 e Santa Barbara chiesa palatina. Il palazzo, la piazza, la canonica, in La basilica palatina di Santa Barbara in Mantova, a cura di L. Mari, Lucca, LIM, 2022