Via Strada Maggiore 19- Dating to the XIII century Corte Isolani boasts rare and unique architecture in the style of a ‘stampella’ and mullioned windows. It was restored in 1877 by Raffaele Faccioli but later opened into Palazzo Isolani, which was built by Pagno di Lapo Portigiani in 1451. It too displays incredibile sculptures on its façade on Piazza S.Stefano.

Corte Isolani – Palazzo Isolani Photos

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About Corte Isolani – Palazzo Isolani

Along Strada Maggiore is one of the rarest examples of civilian buildings featuring an arcade supported by 9m tall oak beams that support the third storey of the building. This unusual characteristic, invented towards the end of the XIII century is referred to as a ‘stampella’, meaning ‘crutch’ in English and was so designed to solve a housing shortage by building higher. Subsequently, the extended height would allow for a person on horseback to pass through the porticoes.

This complex is called Corte Isolani and was originally the house of an important medieval family. Presently though, it’s a gallery with bars and boutique shops interlinked with petite courtyards.

In 1877 the complex was restored by Raffaele Faccioli who at that time opened the first arched door on to Strada Maggiore and also restored the ancient mullioned windows at the beginning of this footage. Although he managed to stay as close as possible to the original design the addition of the two lateral brickwork supports between the three oak beams was the most ‘modern’ intervention here.

At the end of the XX century more construction work was carried out to connect the building with Piazza Santo Stefano and thus create the commercial quarter now known as Corte Isolani.

Towards the back is Palazzo Isolani – naturally called after the Isolani family who were senators here. The palazzo was built ‘between 1451-55 by Pagno di Lapo Portigiani’, a well known sculptor from Fiesole. It reflects ‘a style marking the transition between late Gothic and Tuscan Renaissance.

The façade is arranged on two orders separated by a string-course. The arcade with basket arches supported by Corinthian capitals is surmounted by a sequence of ogee one-light windows. The characteristic faces of six figures enclosed by circular medallions visually recall the near-by palace of the Bolognini family, who in fact had also acquired the Isolani building. Quite oddly, the portraits don 19th-century head-dresses, apparently the result of a later retouch’, probably the same modernization that befell the six porticoes.

References

http://iat.comune.bologna.it/IAT/IAT.nsf/e387643a480afb95c12567b7005886e2/a12bfe9eda0fa5fcc1256bc4004a4bd5?OpenDocument

Umberto Allemandi & C, Guide Di Architettura Bologna, Torino 2004, pp34,80.

Tiziano Costa – Marco Poli, Conoscere Bologna, Bologna 2005, p87.