Palazzo Archinto (Milan)

Palazzo Archinto is a historic palace in Milan, Italy, located at Via Olmetto 6. Originally built in the 17th century by the architect Francesco Maria Richini, it was the primary residence of the noble Archinto family. The palace had lavish interiors, which included a series of ceiling frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

The palace was severely damaged during the Allied bombings of August 1943, resulting in the total loss of the Tiepolo frescoes. While the exteriors have been restored, the interiors were lost. It currently houses the headquarters of the ASP Golgi-Redaelli and a campus of the St. Louis School.^[1]

The palace was commissioned in the 17th century by the Archinto family, one of the most prominent aristocratic families in Milan, who had owned land in the Porta Ticinese area since the 12th century. The design is attributed to the master of Milanese Baroque, Francesco Maria Richini.^[2]

In the 18th century, Count Carlo Archinto (1670–1732), an intellectual and patron of the arts, commissioned a major renovation of the interiors. Between 1730 and 1731, he hired the Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo to decorate five ceilings in the palace for the wedding of his son, Filippo Archinto, to Giulia Borromeo.^[3]

The property remained in the Archinto family until 1825. In 1853, it was purchased by the Luoghi Pii Elemosinieri (now ASP Golgi-Redaelli), a charitable institution which used the building as its administrative headquarters.

The palace is characterized by a sober 17th-century Milanese facade and four courtyards. The main courtyard features a portico with granite columns, leading to a grand staircase and a garden.

Until 1943, the palace contained five ceilings frescoed by Tiepolo, considered his first major commission outside of Venice, most famous ones were:^[4]

• Triumph of the Arts and Sciences (in the main hall)
• Apollo and Phaëton
• Perseus and Andromeda
• Juno, Venus, and Fortune
• The Triumph of Nobility

These works are now known only through black-and-white photographs taken between 1897 and the 1930s, as well as a few preparatory oil sketches (modelli) held in museums such as the Frick Collection in New York, the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.^[3]

On the night of 13 August 1943, during World War II, the palace was hit by incendiary bombs dropped by the Royal Air Force. The resulting fire gutted the interior of the building, causing the roof to collapse and completely destroying the Tiepolo frescoes. Only a small fragment from the Triumph of Arts and Sciences survived and is now preserved at the Sforza Castle museums.^[1]

The palace was rebuilt between 1955 and 1967 under the direction of architect Luigi Dodi. The exterior facades and the main courtyard were faithfully restored to Richini's original design, while the interiors were reconstructed in a modern functional style for office use.^[1]

In 2019, The Frick Collection in New York hosted an exhibition titled Tiepolo in Milan: The Lost Frescoes of Palazzo Archinto, reuniting the surviving preparatory works and photographs to digitally reconstruct the lost masterpiece.^[4]

• List of destroyed heritage
• Bombing of Milan in World War II