In Costigliole Saluzzo, a small town in Piedmont, the historic home of the town council has been restored with the help of funding from CDP
Costigliole Saluzzo is a small town of 3,300 inhabitants in the province of Cuneo. A small community where you can breathe the charm and beauty of a bygone age. The grandeur of history lives on in the streets, in the many castles and above all in one of the locations at the centre of life in the town: the town hall. Actually, the town hall of this Piedmontese municipality is not just any building: it is the eighteenth-century Palazzo Giriodi that, thanks to a careful restoration, has rediscovered the heritage of the eighteenth-nineteenth century, becoming a place of major historical significance, but at the same time one that meets the needs of the council’s day-to-day activities.
The renovation works have made it possible to restore the rooms dedicated to municipal activities, giving back to the community functional space appropriate to the needs of the town.
But why are we telling this story? Because CDP has contributed to the restoration works, with financing totalling 220 thousand euros intended, in particular, for the restoration of the Palazzo's piano nobile, or main floor.
The Palazzo Giriodi of Monastero Lanzo dates back to 1740, when Domenico Giuseppe, Count of Costigliole Saluzzo, commissioned the engineer Bernardo Antonio Vittone to build a "country house enriched with urban comforts", so that he could indulge in the leisure activities offered by rural life, without forgoing the luxury of everyday urban life.
The structure of the Palazzo still bears important testimony to the different uses of the spaces in ancient times: the ground floor is divided into closed off areas and porticoed areas, merely to make clear their functions as workshop or store for agricultural activity; the piano nobile - on the first floor - is reached via an imposing staircase with an elegant vault exquisitely decorated with natural motifs that marks the division of olden times between the formal rooms and those dedicated to everyday life; finally, the second floor, partly in the form of an attic and partly as vaulted rooms, was once used as a granary and a room for servants.
In the 1920s the Palazzo became the home of the council offices of Costigliole Saluzzo. Since the last century, all its citizens have passed through these precious areas to reach the meeting rooms and services of the Town Hall, suddenly finding themselves in a setting redolent of art and history. And if time and occasionally neglect have gradually caused the original beauty of these rooms to fade, the restoration supported by CDP has made it possible to recover and preserve the original beauty of the building, and in so doing, converting it into an unusual and very special place of work.
Preserving the historical and artistic value to return it to the community was the guiding principle for the restoration of the Palazzo. The upgrading of the piano nobile, in particular, enabled the brightness in the walls and terracotta floors to be restored, by means of careful cleaning operations; the antique marble fireplaces still embellish the rooms together with the fixtures, partly restored with a view to safeguarding and preserving this historical artistic heritage that has survived the passage of time.
The offices of the municipality of Costigliole Saluzzo are therefore a positive combination of art, history and practicality that citizens can experience and admire on a daily basis, passing under the elegant vault of the entrance and up the imposing staircase until they reach the bright rooms of the offices where you can still feel the noble charm of the late eighteenth century.
Supporting the area and its local authorities means contributing to the redevelopment of the Italian artistic heritage, giving back to the community the beauty and charm of our culture to make it something of lasting value. It is something we have always done, under the banner of sustainability.
#wepromotethefuture.