User:Kiarika/Palazzo Fizzarotti

The Palazzo Fizzarotti is a historic building in Bari in Puglia.

Built in 1910 in an eclectic style in the center of the city, it was commissions by the architect Ettore Bernich, leader of Italian eclecticism. The palace preserves richly decorated rooms inside, each with a precise artistic style and the use and association of different materials and techniques.

History
Built above the underground "Mare Isabella", Palazzo Fizzarotti has multiple architectural layers.

Inside, structures from the 13th century are visible dating back to old convents and refreshment stations outside the medieval city walls.

In 1850, with the demolition of the medieval walls and the expansion of the city through the Murattian quarter, two areas of land were connected by Nicola Lagattola who built the ground floor and first floor in the Baroque style, demolishing and incorporating the ancient 13th century structures inside.

Fizzarotti, a man extremely attentive to culture, art and music, wanted to make the Palace a cultural container, in fact its construction and decoration became a work of patronage that engaged local and national workers. The builder was Nicolangelo Favia, under the direction of Augusto Corradini who also designed and painted valuable works including the arrival in Bari in 1002 of the Doge Orseo II who frees the city and the wedding procession of Frederick II and Iolonda de Brienne. The mastery of the painter Rega is responsible for the wonderful cycle of the Salone delle Arti e del lavoro and the friezes and masonry coming from Venice and RavennaIn 1879, the last Loiacono heir, Rosa, sold the entire complex to the entrepreneur Emanuele Fizzarotti who modified it, raising the second and third floors and applying a Venezian Gothic facade.

The Fizzarotti, a man extremely antentive to cultur, art and music, wanted to make the Palace a cultural container, in fact it's costruction and decaration became a work of patronage which engaged. In 1850, with the abatement of the medieval walls and the flattening of the city through the Murat district, are connected two zone of soil by Nicola Lagattola. In November 1858 the Lagattola heirs sold the land to Nicola Loiacono who built the ground floor and first floor in baroque style, demolishing and incorporating the ancient structures of the Duocentes. The last Loiacon heir, Rosa, sold in 1879 the entire complex to the entrepreneur Emanuele Fizzarotti who modified it, raising the second and third floors and applying a Venetian Gothic façade.

Following the death of Emanuele Fizzarotti in 1926, the building became first, in the 1930s, the property and headquarters of the Bank of Fucino and then, after the landing of the allies in southern Italy, the headquarters of the Circle of Allied Officers. Between 1960 and 1980 it was the seat of the offices of the European Community. In 1947 Giosuè Poli takes over the management of Palazzo Fizzarotti in the name of Immobiliare Pugliese S.p.A. From that moment on, Immobiliare Pugliese and its shareholders have first committed themselves to protecting the building from political and financial pressure, then then to its recovery and enhancement.

Headquarters of the Poli Archives
Today Palazzo Fizzarotti is also home to Il dell'Archivio Poli, which preserves the contribution of molfettese Giosuè Poli, sports director, organizer and athlete, in the social restructuring of the Apulian territory and Italian sport, during and after the Second World War

The archive is currently being digitised and can be consulted by appointment. It includes, among others, rare documents, photographs and letters also from the front from 1915 until 1969.

Facade
The façade of the "Palazzo Fizzarotti" faces south and is structured in five ogival arches, flanked, at the end, by two towers, surmounted by finely decorated domes, with gold leaf mosaics, depicting the "rising sun

Four polychrome mosaic medallions with gold leaf background adorn the facade represent Phoenicia; the old coat of arms of the city of Bari with the mythical founder of the city, "Barinon"; the coat of arms of the city of Lecce, from which the Fizzarotti family came; the allusive personal coat of arms of Emanuele Fizzarotti "quamquam fractae vulnerant" (despite being broken still injures).

The balconies, the windows, triple and mullioned windows, are in laced stone like the entire facade. The latter manifests a harmonious contrast between the compact but simple stone and the lines of the arches, with pointed arches that, together with the raised pillars, with their bases and capitals, frame three levels of tapered mullioned windows. The third floor above is crossed, for its entire length, by a loggia, whose colonnade supports the valuable and important cornice.

The monumental staircase
Through the door in solid carved oak we find ourselves in the entrance hall, open on the back in a monumental garden with a fountain with the statue of Neptune. The monumental staircase, like the garden itself, are made with the same care of details and diversity of execution techniques that characterize the representative rooms of the first floor. end on the third floor in a vault decorated with a starry sky of an intense blue representing the twelve zodiac signs. In the abundance of decorative elements, coats of arms and small narrative inserts, there are four wall paintings representing the four seasons, personified by figures in vaguely fifteenth-century costumes. Two of the four scenes, all made up of three figures, follow the traditional iconography dedicated to harvesting and harvesting. Two, more "free", are presented one the composition concerning winter and the other, with the couple of young lovers in a flowery landscape, alludes to spring.

The boardrooms
Great interest and attention are aroused by the four representative rooms: the Salone delle Arti e del Lavoro, the Salone Trecentesco, the Salone Rosa and the Salone del Caminetto which is accessed through the so-called waiting room where there is an important mosaic floor depicting the winged head of Mercury, god of Commerce, clear allusion to the profitable financial activities of the owner of the building, leading exponent of the modern Bari.