Palazzo Costantino
via Maqueda, 215
Palazzo Costantino is located in the northeastern corner of Quattro Canti. The palace was constructed by Giuseppe Merendino in the second half of the eighteenth century on a former seventeenth-century structure. Following the purchase of the Palace by the Marquis Giuseppe Costantino, the building underwent an important renovation designed by the Venetian architect Venanzio Marvuglia in a style that combined traditional eighteenth-century elements with neoclassic features.
The main rooms of the Palace were decorated with stuccos, frescos by Gioacchino Martorana, precious Luigi XV and Luigi XVI style furniture made of carved and gold wood, and majolica eighteenth-century floors, like the one depicting La Nascita di Venere. During the Second World War, both German and allied soldiers occupied the palace, damaging its decorations and furniture. In the 1960s, part of the palace was given to La Rinascente society who was using the adjacent Palazzo Napoli as well. The other frescos are by masters of the time such as Giuseppe Velasco, Elia Interguglielmi and Gaspare Fumagalli.
After having been abandoned for more than a half century, between 2001 and 2003, the last heirs of the Palace sold the entire property to the Bilotti Ruggi d’Aragona family. In the early 2000s the façade of the Palace on via Maqueda was partly restored, whereas the construction site inside the palace has been abandoned for years. Today the palace still belongs to Roberto Bilotti Ruggi d’Aragona.
Palazzo Costantino is part of section City on Stage of The Planetary Garden. Cultivating Coexistence, and hosts works by Jelili Atiku, Matilde Cassani, Masbedo, Roberto Collovà, Coloco & Gilles Clément, and Rotor.
