Once known as Casa Littoria, dedicated to city hero Antonio Locatelli and a highly symbolic headquarters of the local Fascist Party, the Palazzo della Libertà is located in the heart of Lower Town.
It serves as a scenic and monumental backdrop to the square of the same name, created during the redevelopment plan for the area where the old St. Mark’s Hospital stood, demolished in the 1930s.
In 1936, in order to better redefine this empty space, a competition was announced: the judging committee-which included Marcello Piacentini, author of the magnificent Piacentiniano Center-decided to award first prize to the design by architect Alziro Bergonzo.
The square was opened to the citizens on October 28, 1939, the anniversary of the March on Rome, with the hope that Mussolini would officially inaugurate it the following year, which did not happen.
It became property of the State Property Office after the war, became the Casa della Libertà and was used as the headquarters of various bodies and associations, with considerable internal transformations.
Since 2017, the City of Bergamo has obtained permits for the use of space on the ground floor.
The architectural body is completely clad in pinkish-white marble from Zandobbio.
The main facade, set on Piazza Libertà, consists of an imposing portico of twelve pillars of giant order; on the architrave stands the dedication “To Antonio Locatelli, three times gold medalist, hero of War and Revolution.”
The entrance staircase is decorated with six bas-reliefs by Edoardo Villa, depicting various protagonists of Bergamo history.
The staircase leads to the monumental atrium, originally lit by stained-glass windows and a skylight; on the wall separating it from the former Old Guard Hall (now an auditorium) can be seen the Heroic Life of Antonio Locatelli, created by Antonio Giuseppe Santagata in 1940.
In addition to the hall, the ground floor originally housed the shrine, administrative and technical services.
The second floor housed the offices of the Federale and those of the Political Secretariat; the upper floors housed the offices of some party organizations.
Among the building’s special features is the fact that Alziro Bergonzo designed not only the architectural part, but also the office furnishings, the intended use of which was already foreseen in the competition announcement.
Among the artists who worked on the decorative apparatus are the names of Leone Lodi (1900-1974), Nino Galizzi (1891-1975) and the aforementioned Edoardo Villa (1915-2011) for the sculptures, Contardo Barbieri (1900-1966), Arnaldo Carpanetti (1898-1969), Gianfilippo Usellini (1903-1971) and Domenico Rossi (1911-1955) for the paintings.
The Palace has with the square in front a close spatial and decorative relationship.
Right in front, at the center of the geometric partition that ideally binds all the surrounding buildings, dominates the octagonal fountain by Claudio Nani, whose body dialogues with the shapes and colors of the Palace.
Also on the left side is Elia Ajolfi’s large statue, The Gifts of the Earth (1999).
The palace is one of the major twentieth-century works completed in Bergamo.