Description
Palazzo Contesso is the Art Nouveau palazzo on the corner of Piazza Verdi and Via D'Azeglio, in the center of La Spezia: built as a hotel for sea bathers and a place for sun cures, it's a building of particular elegance.
It was designed by the Genoese architect Vincenzo Bacigalupi. Look for the paired pilasters with sculptures that tie the balconies together at the corners, the cornice on projecting corbels and the women's heads above the windows of the top floor, a mansard that runs the full length of the roof. In the lobby are unusual bas-reliefs and the original stained-glass windows.
The best-loved detail is on the corner: a streetlamp held up by a wrought-iron arm shaped like a dragonfly, which has inspired more than one story. Between 1921 and 1923 the palazzo became an apartment building, and the iron-and-glass canopy was removed: only the corner with the dragonfly survived.
It was designed by the Genoese architect Vincenzo Bacigalupi. Look for the paired pilasters with sculptures that tie the balconies together at the corners, the cornice on projecting corbels and the women's heads above the windows of the top floor, a mansard that runs the full length of the roof. In the lobby are unusual bas-reliefs and the original stained-glass windows.
The best-loved detail is on the corner: a streetlamp held up by a wrought-iron arm shaped like a dragonfly, which has inspired more than one story. Between 1921 and 1923 the palazzo became an apartment building, and the iron-and-glass canopy was removed: only the corner with the dragonfly survived.