Bears Palace
Palazzo Orsetti or Palazzo Diodati Orsetti is an ancient building in Lucca built by the Diodati family in the sixteenth century, on the foundations of a medieval palace.
Address: Via Santa Giustina, 17 Lucca
phone: 0583 4422
E-MAIL: urp@comune.lucca.it
the website: comune.lucca.it
accessibility: ramps are available for wheelchair users
input: can be visited exceptionally during guided tours
Palazzo Orsetti is one of the seats of the Municipality of Lucca, where the offices of the Mayor and the Council are located.
In front of the palace is the garden, surrounded by high walls. The palace has two imposing facades, both with monumental entrances. The sandstone cornices bear relief trophies; a triton atop one portal, a mermaid atop the other.
interior
Both entrances lead to a long corridor, halfway along which a spectacular staircase opens. From a small courtyard accessed from Via Santa Giustina, one enters a secondary entrance containing a painting depicting "Santa Cecilia" created by Onofrio AvellinoOn the ground floor, in the northern wing, there are several beautiful rooms with 19th-century murals. On the staircase are various paintings depicting elders, gonfalonieri, and senators of the Republic of Lucca. On the landing, you can see "The Conspiracy Against Wallenstein" by Pietro Paolini and Amor and Psyche by Pontormo.
On the first floor there are various beautiful rooms among which the so-called one stands out of Mirrors and the Music Room.
Hall of Mirrors
This room was the ballroom of the palace. It is decorated with original eighteenth-century elements, Empire style furniture. The room is used for official meetings.
Green Room
This room was the living room of the palaceIt owes its name to the green curtains and green brocade wallpaper covering the walls. Today, it is used for civil weddings.
Music Hall
This room is furnished with original furniture and upholsteryIt features a beautiful eighteenth-century chandelier and sumptuous red curtains. The architect who designed the room paid particular attention to its acoustics.
Other rooms
On the main floor are other rooms decorated in neoclassical style, one of which features a beautiful 17th-century painting depicting the allegory of the Republic of Lucca, bearing the motto "Charitas et Veritas Iustitia et Pax Osculatae Sunt" (Charity and Truth, Justice and Peace). On the building's top floor, the rooms are accessed by long internal corridors illuminated by skylights. In the north wing, two rooms retain their 16th-century ceilings with decorated wooden beams.
I walk the places of Catarsini
The church is ideally the starting point of the Cammino I luoghi di Catarsini, a slow tourism experience between Lucca and Versilia, which combines art, history, nature and gastronomic culture in the name of Alfredo Catarsini.
In State Room On the ground floor, five important paintings from Catarsini's artistic production are exhibited: marble quarries, seascapes, and the works Riflessismo and Simbologia Meccanico, linked to the two new artistic movements resulting from the artist's experimentation and pictorial research.