Palazzo Sturm, 18th century palace in Bassano del Grappa, Italy.
Palazzo Sturm rises on the left bank of the Brenta in the Cornorotto district, built in the mid-18th century around a 15th-century tower and stretch of wall. Its roughly seventy rooms are arranged over seven levels: the lower floors, opening directly onto the river, held silk workshops and servants' quarters, while the upper floors formed the owner's residence with reception rooms decorated in fresco and stucco.
Built in the mid-18th century for silk merchant Vincenzo Ferrari, the palace was designed by the amateur architect Abbot Daniello Bernardi (1729–1806) and incorporated a stretch of wall, a tower and a 15th-century building core on the left bank of the Brenta. In the 19th century the Vanzo Mercante family raised the building and joined the new roof to the belvedere loggia. In 1943 the municipality received it as a bequest from Baron Giovanni Battista Sturm von Hirschfeld.
The palace takes its name from Baron Giovanni Battista Sturm von Hirschfeld (1895–1943), who bequeathed it to Bassano del Grappa. Since 1992 it has housed the Museo della Ceramica, with about 1,200 maiolica, porcelain and earthenware pieces, many by the Antonibon family; popular plates are shown in the old kitchen. Since 2007 the Remondini printing museum has occupied part of the building.
The palace stands in the Cornorotto district on the left bank of the Brenta, which it overlooks. The ceramic museum has occupied the building since 1992, and the Remondini printing museum opened there on 15 September 2007. The ceramic collection numbers about 1,200 pieces, with popular plates displayed in the old kitchen and works by international artists on the lower floor.
The entrance hall's upper register was frescoed in 1765 by Giorgio Anselmi with the Fall of the Giants, framed by perspective quadratura and telamons. The stuccoes around the windows and mirrors, with the Chariot of the Sun, the Seasons, Bacchus, Diana, Jupiter and Mercury, were made the following year by an artist still not identified with certainty.
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