In the heart of the city of Macerata sits the 18th-century palace built by the Buonaccorsi family following their rise to become the city’s patrons in 1652 and Simone Buonaccorsi’s investiture as Count in 1701 by Pope Clement XI.
The construction of the palace was the result of complex building works which began in 1697 and grouped pre-existing buildings together following a design by the Roman architect Giovan Battista Contini, a student of Bernini. In 1718, work carried out by Ludovico Gregorini completed the palace with an internal courtyard and Italian garden, of which the parapet with its ornamental vases by Antonio Perucci and the three statues depicting Hercules Victor in Istrian stone, by Paduan sculptor Giovanni Bonazza, remain.
Inside, the vast atrium with oak floorboards, the loggia and the decorated halls, the ceiling coffers and the paintings of mythological creatures in the aristocratic apartments provide precious glimpses of the Baroque and Rococò styles, the splendour reaching its peak in the Aeneid Room. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is decorated with the Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne by Michelangelo Ricciolini, and the walls are adorned with a cycle of paintings on canvas by the greatest artists of the time, celebrating the achievements of Virgil’s hero with great flattery.
The property of the Municipality since 1967 and home to the Academy of Fine Arts until 1997, the palace today houses the town’s collections: the carriage museum and its ancient and modern art.
Marche Film Commission — Fondazione Marche Cultura
Piazza Cavour 23 — 60121 Ancona
Phone: +39 071 9951 623/624/625
Email: silvia.pincini@fondazionemarchecultura.it
