Palazzo Orlandi, Neoclassical palace in Busseto, Italy.
Palazzo Orlandi is a Neoclassical palace at Via Roma 56 in Busseto, built on a rectangular plan of 2,500 m² over three floors. Its main facade rises above a nine-arch round-arched portico with faux ashlar cladding; the central courtyard has a serliana portico and a loggia above. The piano nobile salon is covered with grotesque frescoes by Giuseppe Cavalli.
Composer Giuseppe Verdi purchased the palace in 1845 and lived there from 1849 to 1851, composing several major operas during his stay. The building also holds personal significance as the place where his father Carlo Verdi died in 1867.
The piano nobile salon is covered with grotesque frescoes painted by Giuseppe Cavalli when he rebuilt the palace in the early 19th century; they run across the walls and the pavilion vault of the ceiling. The Orlandi family, one of the most prosperous of the Duchy of Parma, gave the building its present name. After Verdi's death it housed the Museo di Cimeli Verdiani, visited by thousands of opera lovers until it closed in 1996.
The palace is located at Via Roma 56 in central Busseto and currently has restricted access with no regular public visiting. You should check ahead before planning a visit, as the building remains closed to tourists.
In 1982 Renato Castellani shot scenes for his television serial Verdi inside the palace. Arturo Toscanini stayed there repeatedly between 1913 and 1926 and left behind relics, among them a baton he signed for Cina Barezzi Orlandi, great-grandniece of Verdi's first wife Margherita Barezzi.
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