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“Palazzo Ducale” or “Palazzo Grande di Sabbioneta” can be found in Piazza Ducale, along with the church of Santa Maria Assunta, and the Palazzo della Ragione. Palazzo Ducale was built in 1559, after a violent fire that had devastated the former building.
It used to be the residence of the duke and the seat of political and administrative activities.

The palace is developed on 4 levels: the basement, the ground floor, the main floor, and the mezzanine floor used as the residence of Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga.

On the southern side, the facade has a long portico with pilasters and arches covered with white marble decorations. White marble was used also for a tall staircase which leads to the main entrance. On the very door frame, there are five windows profiled in marble and surmounted by alternating triangular and curvilinear gables. Above the windows, there are protruding shelves on which once stood ancient marble portraits of Roman emperors. Finally, the building is dominated by a windowed roof terrace. In the plaster between the windows, visitors can still see traces of the paintings dating back to 1584.

After 1578, the building was equipped with new rooms with wooden ceilings, an internal loggia, a courtyard of honor, and a turret covering a large area. The main entrance now leads to the vast hall and from there, to a large room with two huge central pillars.

To the right, a door leads to some rooms with decorated ceilings; the most important is “Sala di Diana and Endimione”. Through the latte, visitors can access two “golden rooms” (with golden wooden ceilings) connected to other parts of the palace by a vestibule called “Saletta dei Dardi”: here, the ducal coat of arms can be seen in the center of the ceiling.

Then, there’s the Duke of Alba’s Hall, with an imposing pink marble fireplace from Verona, with lion-like decorations and architrave with some ducal inscription; the ceiling is made of carved wooden boxes, decorated with pure gold foil.

On the first floor, the “Sala delle Aquile” has housed what remains of the Cavalcata, a wooden equestrian statue representing Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna and his male ancestry, for some decades.
This work of art celebrates the military virtues of the Gonzaga lineage. In the center of the room, there is the equestrian statue which portrays Vespasiano wearing a parade armor, and the famous collar of the knightly order of the Golden Fleece. This very room leads to several adjacent spaces: “Galleria degli Antenati” (once called the “small library”), and “Sala degli Elefanti”, painted with caryatids and elephants. The animals are girded with a golden chain held by one hand, signifying human reason that guides nature in the name of justice and peace.

Then, there is “Sala dei Leoni”, with a ceiling of walnut decorated with two heraldic beasts supporting the ducal coat-of-arms. It’s also worth mentioning the City Hall, with frescos of the city panoramas, the “Angel’s Room”, with a Lebanon cedar ceiling decorated with an angel holding the usual coat-of-arms, “Sala degli Ottagoni”, with an exquisite Lebanon cedar ceiling, and “Sala dei Grappoli”, with grapes hanging from cedar square coffers. Finally, there’s a modest staircase which leads to “Sala degli Imperatori”, frescoed with plant motifs and, in the past, the 12 portraits of Roman emperors in golden frames.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)