Barozzi Palace

Barozzi Palace, also known as Contrari-Boncompagni Palace, stands in the square in front of the Vignola Fortress. It was built at the behest of Count Ercole Contrari the Elder as a new stately home for his family; he entrusted its construction to the ‘master builder’ Bartolomeo Tristano of Ferrara, based on a design by the great Vignola architect Jacopo Barozzi; as a result, the palace is also known as Barozzi Palace.

With the extinction of the Contrari family, upon the death of Ercole Contrari the Younger in 1575, the Palace, together with the rest of the fiefdom, was purchased in 1577 by Giacomo Boncompagni, who oversaw its completion. The Boncompagni family remained owners of the Palace until 1949, when they decided to sell it to the Parish of Vignola.

The palace has a rectangular shape with two side wings projecting on the western side, inside of which is the garden. Of its four floors, the basement and the raised ground floor were used for kitchens, provisions and the upkeep of the house; the main floor was the part where the feudal lord lived and received visitors, while the attic was for servants.

The Palace's only vertical connection is also one of its jewels: the famous 'spiral' staircase located in the projecting wing to the south. Designed like the rest of the palace by Jacopo Barozzi, it has an extraordinary helicoidal shape and is an architectural masterpiece of the highest level. It is, in fact, floating, with a single supporting pillar placed in the basement and each of the 106 steps is self-supporting, inserting itself into the perimeter wall with an increasingly pronounced inclination as one reaches its apex, located 12.33 metres high. This creates an upward whirling effect, which is nevertheless made attractive by the harmonious spiral, the three openings that offer a splendid view of the Vignola area, and the frescoes decorating the walls of the staircase. The latter date back to 1880; the room was originally simply plastered white, and the decorations were made at the behest of Prince Antonio Boncompagni by the artists Fermo Forti and Angelo Forghieri.

Restoration work has recently been carried out on the basement (which can now be visited), which housed the cellars, the kitchen, two wells, the oven and the first cycle of Barozzi's self-supporting helicoidal staircase. An atmospheric conference room has been created among the various rooms restored in the basement.