Massimo Quarta & MCO | Monferrato Classica 2022

Home of the A. Vivaldi Conservatory. Built from the end of the 17th century on the foundations of an earlier family palace, it is attributed to master builders Ambrogio and Bernardo Bianchi. It was sold in 1812 to the Genoese nobleman Marcello Durazzo, who enlarged it; in 1852 it became the property of the Municipality of Alessandria. Since 23 May 2004 it has been home to "I Percorsi del Museo civico". Located inside the city's 18th-century Palazzo Cuttica di Cassine, the museum itinerary offers a selection of works and art objects mainly from the Alessandria area. In the first room there are two 18th century Flemish tapestries. The following rooms display the recently acquired archaeological collection of pre-Roman and Roman age of Cesare Di Negro Carpani, the result of an intense activity of nineteenth-century collecting; due to its historical-archaeological characteristics, it is of particular importance for the reconstruction of the current framework of knowledge of the prehistory and ancient history of the Alessandria and Tortona area. This is followed by the rooms housing the sacred vestments and the precious collection of illuminated choir books commissioned by Pope Pius V, the only Piedmontese Pope, on the occasion of the construction of the Dominican convent of Santa Croce and Ognissanti in Bosco Marengo. The following rooms display works dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte and the Battle of Marengo. In the last room there are some important works of Piedmontese sacred painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as the fascinating polyptych of the Coronation of the Virgin, by Gandolfino da Roreto.