Carpi - The Pio di Savoia palace

The ancient city centre
The Pio di Savoia palace complex is made up of various buildings, all datable to between the middle ages and the eighteenth century. Originally a fortified castle, it was modified over the centuries with the construction of fortresses, towers and keeps, and finally unified in the early sixteenth century with its transformation into a princely abode by Alberto Pio III. From its foundation till today, the castle structure has existed for a good eleven centuries.
The edifice extends from east to west through the city’s two main piazzas. Commonly called the Castle, the Pio Palace now gives a visually unitary impression, even if it is made up from buildings that are far from homogeneous in terms of dating and characteristics.

The Pio Palace Today
The palace is currently home to new museums, which offer three independent but interconnected routes: the Museo del Palazzo, the Museo della Città and the Museo Monumento al Deportato.

The Museo del Palazzo
The Museo del Palazzo (Palace Museum) stretches over the Piano Nobile of the ancient Pio residence and features three main collections: Renaissance works, xylographs from the origins to our own times, and a picture-gallery.
The visitor route also offers a second level of reading which unravels through the most outstanding areas of the entire complex and includes fresco cycles, wooden ceilings and the architecture itself. Careful restoration work finished in 2007 returned Alberto Pio III’s Renaissance palace to its former splendour.

The Museo della città
Thanks to an innovative museological project, the Museo della Città (City Museum) summarises 35 centuries of Carpi’s history through four large areas covering different themes and time periods, displaying relics, art works and other objects which trace the environmental evolution and the economic, social, political and cultural development of the territory.

• Before the city: begins from the Bronze age to arrive at the Roman occupation
• The Lordship: from the middle ages to the flourishing period of the Renaissance court
• The domination of the Este family: from the development of gypsum techniques to the Risorgimento.
• The twentieth century: politics, culture, economics and industry in modern history.