Palazzo Pfanner

Museum Lucca, Italy

The construction of Palazzo Pfanner dates back to 1660. It was the Moriconi family, belonging to the merchant nobility of Lucca who commissioned its construction. Ruined by bankruptcy, the Moriconi family was forced in 1680 to sell the building to the Controni family, a silk merchant who had risen to the nobility. The Controni family extended the building: around 1686 they presided over the construction of the great monumental staircase, presumably based on the designs of the Lucchese architect Domenico Martinelli, active above all in the European capitals of Vienna and Prague; in the early 18th century they probably commissioned Filippo Juvarra to expand the rear garden; still in the same period they entrusted the decoration of the vaults of the staircase and the interior of the aristocratic residence to the local "quadraturisti" painters. It is in the residence that the Controni family hosted Prince Frederick of Denmark who was making a grand tour of Italy.