The Cybo-Malaspina Fortress of Carrara (Academy of Fine Arts)

The ancient palace of the Cybo Malaspina family, which has dominated the city of Carrara for centuries, has a dual appearance that reflects its long history of construction: the part facing Piazza Gramsci (the ancient parade ground) has a fairy-tale medieval castle character, the part facing Via Roma exhibits the features of the Renaissance princely palace. More homogeneous is the long seventeenth-century front facing Accademia Square, with its regular course enlivened by the grandiose architecture of the portal: in this case, what is surprising is the off-center position of the monumental entrance, surmounted by a mighty balcony overlooking from the great hall on the piano nobile.

These particularities, sometimes hailed as true anomalies, add character and personality to the building, and are an interesting key to learning about its history, which is inextricably linked to that of the city of marble.

The first record of the “Rocca di Carrara” dates back to 1187, when the structure must have consisted of a single defensive tower, quadrangular in shape, placed in a strategic position on a slight rise from which it dominated the first nucleus of the city and part of the Carrione valley. The construction of a primitive city wall between 1212 and 1230 gave new importance to the fortress, which in 1448 is already referred to as a “castle.” With the advent of the Malaspina seigniory, in the last quarter of the 15th century, the castle was enlarged, with the courtyard and loggias, beginning to take on the character of a lordly residence: in 1478 there is news of a “camera picta” inside, suggesting environments of courtly refinement.

In the mid-sixteenth century there is news of extensions and decorations, but it is only with Marquis Alberico I (1568-1623) that the ancient fortress took on great symbolic and urbanistic value: the new walls, erected starting in 1557, created new spaces, drawing broad and modern perspectives. Next to the fortress rose the new sovereign palace, but the focus of city life now revolved around the large Alberica square, soon surrounded by the palaces of Carrara’s leading families.

This is the reason that prompted the placement of the portal not in a central position, as the principles of Renaissance architecture would have suggested, but shifted toward the sea: the expedient detracted from the symmetry of the building but made it perfectly visible from the square, being placed in axis with the straight line of the elegant Via del Carmine (today Loris Giorgi).

Charles I (1581-1662), Alberico’s nephew and successor, completed this phase of the work, and had his name engraved in plain sight on the large jambs of the piano nobile; during the eighteenth century the palace was enlarged with the addition of rooms used as prisons, corresponding to the oldest part of the complex, and the court theater was renovated (1768), in the place currently occupied by the aula magna of the Academy. It was in a room adjacent to the theater, facing the valley, that the lessons of the nude school (1770) of the brand new Ducal Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1769, began. The institute, however, remained in the building only for a short time, pending the completion of a more suitable venue, erected a few meters away (known as Palazzo Rosso, on Via del Plebiscito).

After the spoliations of the revolutionary period, the old Cybo Palace was donated by Elisa Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister and ruler of these states, to the Academy itself, which has occupied its spaces ever since. The 1920 earthquake, which severely damaged the structure, was the occasion for “radical restoration and rehabilitation work,” which continued from 1924 to 1934, giving the complex its present form.

The jails were demolished to “free” the structures of the fortress, which were integrated and completed with extensive interventions aimed at restoring its original appearance: the battlements and the upper part of the castle date entirely from this phase, and were executed in a very un-philological and highly imaginative manner, giving this part of the building the enchanted and bizarre tone noted earlier.

A new body of the building was then added, entirely clad in marble and surmounted by a slender loggia, which acted as a link between the two parts of the structure. The interior was reorganized and enriched with a monumental staircase, a “Marble Sample Room” (1934), and fine works of artistic craftsmanship; particularly notable are the beautiful stained-glass windows (1925-1927) by the manufacture of Galileo Chini (1873-1956).

The palace and fortress are still involved in educational and administrative activities; some rooms are therefore closed to the public, others can be visited compatibly with the conduct of classes. Entrance is from Via Roma, near the recently restored Sala dei Marmi (on the left): on the right there is access to the castle courtyard, with loggias and graffito decorations, while descending the monumental staircase leads to the Library’s large reading room, set up in the Sala delle Colonne, the original entrance hall to the palace. Two adjacent rooms contain the so-called “Fondo Antico,” the most conspicuous part of the institute’s book and documentary holdings, and the “Hall of Illustrious Men.”

Going up to the second floor and turning right, one enters the large Great Hall, with its coffered ceiling and splendid 1930s Murano glass chandelier, 330 cm high, restored in 2020. Returning to the landing and continuing in the opposite direction, one enters the part reserved for administrative offices, with airy loggias adorned with grotesque motifs.

The whole is littered with works of art, and a large collection of plaster casts, ancient and modern, casts or original models, invades the halls of the Academy, waiting for the long-awaited project of a Gipsoteca to take shape to house the institution’s substantial historical and artistic heritage.