The doorway of this palace complies with Vignola’s style and his five architectural orders and the doorway is alike and coeval with the one in Spagna street, owned by the Pizzarro family.
It shows four pilasters of Doric Roman order, two rusticated in the front and two pilasters scene. They were originally mounted on plinths, that have been sawed off to ease the traffic on which a framed Doric trabeation with heraldic lilies and rose windows inserted in the meteopes rests.
The Palace, which dates back to the first years of the seventeenth century, belonged to the Munittola family. Orazio, who was a physicist from Morciano was well known in the whole block and soon the Palace was identified by his surname.
In 1742, the owner was Francesco, “residing in a place called Munittola, near the buildings of St. Clare’s convent“, who also possessed “under the house where he lived, an olive oil mill where olives were grinded“.
The Munittola’s coat of arms, according to the description made by Foscarini is: “on an azure field a trunk of a tree with broken branches on which a goldfinch rests; a silver star is on the right corner of the shield“. The coat of arms, a stone high relief with a crest and a helmet in profile, is the outward emblem of unpretentious nobility. It is set on the top of a column placed at the southern corner of the Palace near the doorway.
This family contracted noble kinship with Musurù, Pirelli, Balsamo, Camal-dari, and Sansonetti; although its descendants were inclined to the medical profession and mercantile trade, which they practiced especially from the late 18th century.
Original text – Elio Pindinelli
English translation by Rocco Merenda
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