Palazzo Martinengo

Palazzo Martinengo owes its name to Ulisse Martinengo, Count of Brescia, one of the many adherents to the Protestant Reformation who found refuge in the Valtellina and Valchiavenna in the 1500s.

The Earl (whose initials appear on a stone fireplace in a room on the ground floor) purchased the land and restructured the building. The palazzo, which later became the seat of the vicar of the valley and then of the Royal Prefecture, was restructured several times to repair damage done by the flooding of the nearby Mallero torrent. It owes its current aspect, typical of the nineteenth century and in harmony with the other buildings of piazza Garibaldi, to the work done following the ruinous flood of 1834. The monument in the palazzo’s garden was erected in appreciation of the containment work on the banks of the Mallero, begun in 1835  according to designs by Carlo Donegani and largely funded by the government of Lombardy-Veneto.

The monument, finished in 1839, was realized by Giuseppe Croff, a disciple of Canova: the marble obelisk is adorned with allegorical statues portraying Justice, Religion, Peace and Charity, and on its base the coats of arms of the City and the Hapsburgs, which were removed in 1859. Today, palazzo Martinengo houses the municipal offices and, on the ground floor, the interesting “Fulvio Grazioli” Museum of Minerals, which can be visited by reservation only.