Palazzo Alfieri (Asti)

Palazzo Alfieri (Asti) in Asti, Italy, is a Baroque-style palace that grew from a group of medieval houses once belonging to a local noble family. Its core follows a medieval urban plan, while its principal transformation into the Baroque form took place in the 18th century. The building is historically important as the birthplace of the poet Vittorio Alfieri and as the home of the National Center for Alfieri Studies, and it stands on Corso Alfieri in the Cathedral district of the city.

The palace began as a compact set of medieval buildings tied to the neighboring block and to the Cacherano family. Ownership shifted by the late 1600s into the Alfieri family; a notarial act dated 1696 records this transfer, and other records indicate Alfieri possession may reach back into the early 1600s. The house remained part of the urban fabric of Asti as noble residences consolidated around the cathedral area.

In 1736 the family commissioned a substantial remodelling that gave the façade and principal rooms the Baroque character visible today. The remodelling reshaped the street-facing elevation and the internal sequence of reception rooms that form the main apartments on the principal floor. During the 18th and 19th centuries the palace continued to serve as a noble urban residence.

During the 19th century the property passed into the Colli di Felizzano family through the marriage of Marianna Cristina Canalis, daughter of Giulia Alfieri (the poet’s sister), to Luigi Colli Ricci, Count of Solbrito and Marquis of Felizzano. At the start of the 20th century the building was transformed for public use: medieval service structures were removed, and the palace was adapted to house a museum and a civic library under Count Leonetto Ottolenghi. Ottolenghi later gave the palace to the Municipality of Asti.

The municipality undertook alterations in the 1920s and again in 1939, 1949, and 1958, including restoration of principal rooms and the placing of a commemorative bust of Vittorio Alfieri in the courtyard in 1923. The palace was closed for comprehensive restoration in 1996. Work progressed slowly; after roughly twenty years of closure part of the building reopened in 2016 and the museum was again put into use.