Museo Civico di Palazzo Mazzetti

Palazzo Mazzetti is a prestigious historical building of Asti that bears witness to the social affirmation in the city of a family of noble origins, who became wealthy thanks to their minting rights and shrewd real estate purchases. From the last quarter of the 17th century, Giovanni Battista began the work of incorporating the medieval buildings of the neighborhood of Corso Alfieri and the construction of new environments. In 1751-1752, the architect Benedetto Alfieri designed the construction of the east wing and the refurbishment of the facade. Purchased in 2000 by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Asti, with the aim of creating an important cultural attraction, the building was returned to the city in December 2011, completely restored and with a renewed layout of the civic collections and rooms for temporary exhibitions. Equipped with bookshop, lecture hall, conference room, library, archives, storage areas, coffee shop, touch screen and multimedia projections, the ancient palazzo is full of charm. Exploring the building, from the basement floor to the last floor which is home to the paintings and the sculptures of the 19th-20th centuries, visitors can gather significant elements of historical and constructive events and, through the museum layout, understand the formation of the collections from the end of the 19th century to our day. The rooms of the main floor, characterized by the rich and refined baroque decoration, exhibit ancient and modern paintings and important nineteenth and twentieth century collections: the collection of ivory, lacquered wood and porcelain artifacts gathered by the Rear-Admiral of the Royal Navy Enrico Secondo Guglielminetti and Giuseppe Rolando during their travels in the East, the precious collection of micro-sculptures of the famous Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (Asti, 1745-Turin, 1820) and the ancient fabrics and clothes of the Gerbo collection.