Palazzo Rota

18th-century historic building

Palazzo Rota stands on the road that goes from Bovezzo to Cortine di Nave and is one of the few inhabited historic buildings in the province of Brescia, with descendants of the noble Rota family still living there.

This neoclassical construction was built at the end of the 18th century on a design by Vincenzo Berenzi, who reused the stones and wrought iron gate from the demolished palazzo of Bishop S. Eustacchio, destroyed by the Jacobins in 1797. It is said that the Rota family purchased the dispersed material of the magnificent villa built by Cardinal Querini to rebuild its architectural lines and provide work to many workers and peasants during the severe crisis that followed the fall of Napoleon in 1814.

The U-shaped plan of the building consists of the main body and two low wings at the centre of which two entrance halls lead into the courtyard of the stables to the east, and into the garden to the west. At the centre of the palazzo is a higher body consisting of three large portico arches, with masonry-clad pillars, surmounted by three windows looking out towards a wrought-iron balcony. On either side of the central body are two equal bodies with four windows on each of the two floors, while the ground floor is lightened by a low four-bay portico with pillars.

The building is also characterised by the presence of a chapel dedicated to St Charles Borromeo, embellished with a finely crafted marble altar and a 19th-century altarpiece.