By pure chance last
Sunday I found myself visiting the Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo .
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
Sassuolo is a
rather ugly industrial town at the heart of the massive Italian ceramic tile
industry and a place that nobody usually visits for sightseeing, just mile after mile of
industrial sprawl is what you will find if you visit this area. But like lots
of other seemingly ugly places in Italy, a visual surprise is always just around
the corner.
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| Sala della Guardia, Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
I was curious to
see this palace before continuing on to somewhere else, not expecting to find it
even open. What a nice surprise I had. For some reason the palace was open and
better still admission was free that day. Even though photography was
officially prohibited, nobody enforced the rule, so I was even able to take
some pictures or rather lots of pictures.
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| Sala della Guardia, Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Scala, Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
The palace was
constructed over an older castle in the mid seventeenth century for the Duke of
Modena as a summer residence and hunting lodge. After the fall of the Ducato di Modena during
Napoleon’s invasion of Italy, the palace fell into a slow decline ending up at
one point as a Salami factory. The
palace is now being slowly restored to something of its former glory.
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
What a sea of
colour this palace is with the walls and ceilings decorated with frescoes as well as a good dose gold gilt trimmings around the fittings. Particularly impressive
is the “Sala delle Guardie”. In the rooms where the original painting have long
since disappeared, their place has been taken by mono colour panels conceived by a couple of contemporary artists.
The effect works quite well.
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
I spent a pleasant couple
of hours wandering around this wonderful palace and its park lost in the middle of one of the ugliest towns in
Italy.
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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| Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo, MO |
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