Sunday I decided to
visit the Rocca di Novellara and a Renaissance manor house called “Casino di
Sopra” that was exceptionally open nearby.
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
The Rocca contains a
small museum where one can see a series of frescoes by a certain Lelio Orsi that
were originally in the main hall of the Casino di Sopra. They were striped from
the walls in the nineteenth century and sold to a nobleman who transferred them
to his palace in Venice. They were resold and finished up in Germany before
ending up with an art dealer in Switzerland. The Italian government bought them in 1973 and
finally (not surprisingly) minus a
couple of pieces retuned to Novellara.
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| Fresco by Orsi, La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| Fresco by Orsi, La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| Fresco by Orsi, La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
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| La Rocca, Novellara, RE |
The Casino di Sopra is quite small but quite interesting. The cavernous
main hall has seen better times and what remains of the original frescoes are very faded and damaged and so are very
difficult to read.
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Substructure of the Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
One interesting thing
about this building is that this single story structure has its floor raised
more than a metre above ground level. A reminder that this was a swampy area
subject to flooding before massive
hydraulic works reclaimed much of the land for agriculture.
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| The main hall Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Casino di Sopra, Novellara,RE |
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| Camillo Gonzaga |
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