Palazzo Ginnasi

The current Palazzo Ginnasi is the building that replaces the old Palazzo Ginnasi, partially demolished between 1935 and 1940 when the street was widened, of which it still retains the two coats of arms of the family from Brescia located above the portal with the inscription GINNASI.

The ancient palace was built at the end of the 16th century to a design by Ottaviano Mascherino and at the behest of Monsignor Alessandro Ginnasi. In 1624, Cardinal Domenico Ginnasi enlarged and restored the palace, incorporating the pre-existing church of S. Lucia (which since then has been called 'de' Ginnasi') and turning part of the palace into a monastery for Carmelite nuns and part into a college, known as the Collegio Ginnasi, for those who wanted to start their ecclesiastical life. On this occasion, the cardinal also had the so-called Arco dei Ginnasi built to connect his properties. The building complex underwent further renovations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the Palazzetto Ginnasi, which formed a corner with the main palace, was also enlarged: today the palazzetto, which was left out of the work to widen the street, is all that remains of the old building complex of the Ginnasi family. On the other hand, S.Lucia de' Ginnasi, once called S.Lucia de Calcarario because of its proximity to the area of the lime or limestone furnaces, but also S.Lucia alle Botteghe Oscure because of its obvious proximity to the street, S.Lucia Antica, S.Lucia delle Pontiche Oscure and S.Lucia de Pinea, were not left out. On the area where the church once stood is now the monastery of the Maestre Pie Filippine, whose entrance portal, surmounted by a beautiful Madonnina, is located along Via delle Botteghe Oscure, but was once located on Largo di S.Lucia dei Filippini, in front of the present Palazzo Ginnasi: in fact this is the ancient entrance to the church of S.Lucia de' Ginnasi.