In 1474 the elderly Cardinal Bartolomeo Roverella commissioned a palazzo on the Piazza Maggiore, the main square. It was meant to celebrate his family’s prestige. The Roverella came from a village between Rovigo and Lendinara, and had then risen in rank at Ferrara, at the court of the Este. A Polesine family that had reached the top, and a palazzo to tell the world. The architect’s name is not known. Scholars suggest the influence of the young Biagio Rossetti, the great planner of Renaissance Ferrara, and the Convention Bureau map speaks of a design “perhaps” by him.
A building site interrupted
The cardinal died suddenly in 1477, just three years after work began, and the site fell silent. The grand project was left half done. The palazzo remained unfinished. Until the late 16th century it underwent alterations, some of them unauthorised, which hastened its decay. In the 19th century came further rounds of renovation and enlargement. And yet its unmistakable feature has survived: the terracotta façade, in the Este taste. Three architectural orders rest on sturdy marble columns, in a harmony of red brick and white stone. It is the detail that makes the palazzo recognisable at a glance.
The rebirth
The rebirth is recent: from a building marked by time to a home for major exhibitions. The Comune di Rovigo and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo funded a complete restoration, which the italia.it portal dates to 2000. Since then the palazzo has become one of the most important exhibition venues in the Veneto. The 15th-century terracotta frames new seasons of art.
Today it is the permanent home of the Pinacoteca, the picture gallery of the Accademia dei Concordi and the Seminario Vescovile (the Bishop’s Seminary), with works by Giovanni Bellini, Palma il Vecchio, Tiepolo and Piazzetta. Alongside the collection, major temporary exhibitions come and go. In 2024 the show devoted to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec drew 64,000 visitors, according to the Accademia. The palazzo a cardinal could not finish has thus become one of the city’s homes for art.
