Contact us
STREET ADDRESS: Via degli Asili, 33 Lucca
PHONE: 0583 952155
EMAIL: info@palazzopfanner.it
WEBSITE: palazzopfanner.it
The Controni family dedicated themselves to the expansion of the building: around 1686 they supervised the works for the construction of the monumental staircase presumably designed by the architect from Lucca Domenico Martinelli, active mainly in the European capitals of Vienna and Prague; in the early 700th century they commissioned, most likely, Philip Juvarra, the redevelopment of the rear garden; and in the same period they entrusted the painters 'quadraturists' local frescoes on the vaults of the staircase and the interiors of the noble residence.
The story of the Pfanner family is intertwined with the centuries-old history of the Palazzo.
Towards the middle of the 800th century, it was in fact Felix Pfanner, a brewer born in Hörbranz (Austria), but from a Bavarian family, gradually acquired the entire structure after having installed his brewery there, one of the first in Italy, starting in 1846. The historic Pfanner Brewery, a pleasant place of production and tasting located between the garden and the cellars of the Palazzo, closed in 1929. The Palazzo is still owned by the Pfanner family, who, starting in 1995, has undertaken a demanding project of valorization by promoting its restoration and opening to visitors.
With its grassy plains, ornamental flowers, tall trees and lemon trees that accompany the monumental series of eighteenth-century statues depicting the gods of Greek Olympus and the Four Seasons, the garden of Palazzo Pfanner, clearly visible from the two different perspectives of the city walls and the staircase, represents a fine example of a baroque garden Nestled in the heart of medieval Lucca. The octagonal pool at the intersection of the two central avenues and the elegant lemon house to the north adorn a green space that, in the late 800th century, at the height of the Belle Époque, served as the backdrop for the Pfanner Brewery and, more recently, in 1996, was chosen as the location. for the film "Portrait of a Lady", starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich.
The monumental staircase, immortalised in Monicelli's famous film "The Marquis of Grillo" (1981), leads to the noble residence consisting of a large hall frescoed by Pietro Paolo Scorsini in the early 700th century, richly furnished side rooms, a bedroom where the idyll between Prince Frederick of Denmark and the noblewoman Maria Maddalena Trenta from Lucca took place in 1692, and a historic kitchen.
The residence houses a permanent exhibition of late 800th-century medical and surgical instruments that belonged to Pietro Pfanner, a distinguished doctor, philanthropist, and mayor of Lucca from 1920 to 1922.