Casa Barilli
Located in Via Rizzoli, not far from the Two Towers, Casa Barilli is an Art Nouveau building constructed between 1906 and 1907. The building housed one of Bologna's first department stores.
Architect Leonida Bertolazzi
Casa Barilli was designes by
architect Leonida Bertolazzi, a municipal technician with long experience in the city. In fact, Bertolazzi had already worked on the renovation of large public buildings such as the Sant'Orsola Hospital, the Gozzadini Hospital and the Budrio Sanatorium; he had also designed the decorations for the façade of the old Maggiore Hospital building, which was destroyed during the bombing of World War II.
After Casa Barilli, Bertolazzi collaborated with Augusto Sezanne on the design of another important building in Bologna, the
Palazzina Majani, once the headquarters of the famous chocolate manufacturer, which we can still admire today in Via Indipendenza.
Casa Barilli and Palazzina Majani are two magnificent examples of the Art Nouveau style that triumphed in Bologna and other Italian cities in those years.
Casa Barilli, emblem of Art Nouveau in Bologna
Recently restored, Casa Barilli is
a four-storey building featuring a rich array of decorations that look to the
Art Nouveau style, such as the lowered arches and pilasters. The jewel in the crown are the winged heads of the god Mercury placed on the cornice between the second and third floors of the building, a metaphor for the wave of lightness brought to the city by art nouveau.
The protagonists of the façade are undoubtedly the large windows that run along the entire surface, complemented by Emilian-made iron railings. The position of the façade of Casa Barilli is a true 'corner solution', i.e. it is arranged in such a way as to maximise the area available for sale. This further emphasises the
commercial nature of the building, which was created to house a large warehouse.
