Purchase online the Full Wine Tasting Carnet and you are entitled to a free entrance if you buy an entrance ticket for Fondazione Asti Musei!
The 5 museums: Palazzo Mazzetti, Cripta di Sant’Anastasio, Palazzo Alfieri, Domus Romana, Torre Troyana.
Asti is a city rich in history. From the Roman age to the present day, the different eras have left indelible traces, evident proof of the importance of our municipality.
The museums of the Asti Musei Foundation, located a few hundred meters from each other, are the best way to discover the history, culture and art of our city. Five museums, representing as many historical periods; five testimonies of Asti’s daily life and artistic production over the centuries. To visit our museums means to immerse yourself in the Roman Hasta, descend into the depths of the Early Middle Ages, rise towards the glorious years of the Municipality of Asti in the 13th century, walk into the home of an aristocratic family of the 17th century, meet Vittorio Alfieri in the luxury of the 18th century Baroque and, finally, follow the development of the civic museum through the uninterrupted acquisition of international masterpieces. All with just one ticket. The beauty of Asti is all around you: discover it with us!
Palazzo Mazzetti
The palace is a prestigious historical building that shows the emergence of a family, within the city’s social context, that got rich thanks to the Mint business and some accurate real estate purchases.
Built on pre-existing medieval buildings and renovated by Benedetto Alfieri in 1751, the building was returned to the city in 2009, recovered and with a renewed set-up both for the collections and the rooms.
Palazzo Mazzetti is the civic art gallery of Asti. Walking through the building, from the archaeological site up to the top floor, you will discover the history of Asti’s art. The baroque rooms on the first floor, home to the Mazzetti family, host works from the 16th to 19th centuries, featuring masterpieces such as the paintings by Valerio Castello and Giacomo Grosso; noteworthy are the Oriental collections as well as the collection of wood and ivory microsculptures by Bonzanigo, which are unique in the world. On the second floor there are the collections of paintings and sculptures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which include portraits by Michelangelo Pittatore, evidence of the Asti post-unification bourgeoisie.
Sant’Anastasio
An open book on the city’s history. In this underground space you can see the remains of the Romanesque church dedicated to St. Anastasius (XI-XII centuries) with its crypt, a fascinating place with columns and capitals of Roman and early medieval times, surrounded by the pavement of the Hasta forum, Longobard tombs, traces of the original church and the foundations of the seventeenth-century’s church, demolished in 1907 together with the female monastery of which it was part.
The capitals in the corridor belong to the most monumental phase of the church, the Romanesque phase of the 12th century, and they show a great variety of motifs: lions and eagles, branches and grape bunches, little palms and ribbons.
Other important collections are on display in the rooms, with finds which were discovered through excavations in the city. In addition to the splendid fragment of a four-headed fountain, you can enjoy architectural elements, cantonal stones and the coats of arms of families coming from fortified buildings and palaces, as well as capitals and ashlar arches carved between the thirteenth and fifteenth century for the Gothic church of La Maddalena, which was demolished in the nineteenth century.
Torre Troyana
The tower is one of the symbols of Asti, its landscape and its past. A staircase of 199 steps leads up to the battlements, a panoramic point that offers a full 360° view on the city and surrounding area. The alternation of bricks and sandstone is a typical feature of Asti’s medieval architecture which can also be seen in St. Peter’s, St. Secondo and the Cathedral. The building dates back to the thirteenth century, a period of great building renovation, and was part of the house-fortress of the mercantile aristocratic Troya family.
The mullioned windows and the arched decorations in the upper part are the result of the modifications during the early XIV century; also the putlog holes show the building’s different construction phases. Since 1560 the tower has been carrying out the public function of striking the hour. The bell on the top is one of the oldest in Piedmont, which is still working, and has a surface decorated with bas-reliefs featuring holy images of saints, according to the custom of the time
Palazzo Alfieri
The palace is the birthplace of the famous writer Vittorio Alfieri, poet and tragedian born in Asti in 1749. Shaped on an ancient medieval fortified house, it owes its present baroque aspect to the intervention, between 1736 and 1738, of Benedetto Alfieri, cousin of the poet. Purchased and restored by Count Ottolenghi, the palace became the seat of the Civic Museum in 1903. The Alfieri Museum, the Fondazione Centro Studi Alfieriani and the Fondazione Eugenio Guglielminetti are also hosted here
On the first floor it is possible to visit the historical halls and the poet’s birth room, the spaces were furnished and decorated during the recent renovation to restore the appearance of the mansion as it was in the eighteenth century. The Alfieri museum traces the life of the poet, his literary production as well as the history of the palace itself. In the Gallery of Life there is a display of relics, documents and autographs thanks to which you can retrace the main stages of Alfieri’s biography: the years of study in the Savoy capital, the long European grand tour, the love passions and the decision to become a tragic author.
Domus Romana
The palace is the birthplace of the famous writer Vittorio Alfieri, poet and tragedian born in Asti in 1749. Shaped on an ancient medieval fortified house, it owes its present baroque aspect to the intervention, between 1736 and 1738, of Benedetto Alfieri, cousin of the poet. Purchased and restored by Count Ottolenghi, the palace became the seat of the Civic Museum in 1903. The Alfieri Museum, the Fondazione Centro Studi Alfieriani and the Fondazione Eugenio Guglielminetti are also hosted here
On the first floor it is possible to visit the historical halls and the poet’s birth room, the spaces were furnished and decorated during the recent renovation to restore the appearance of the mansion as it was in the eighteenth century. The Alfieri museum traces the life of the poet, his literary production as well as the history of the palace itself. In the Gallery of Life there is a display of relics, documents and autographs thanks to which you can retrace the main stages of Alfieri’s biography: the years of study in the Savoy capital, the long European grand tour, the love passions and the decision to become a tragic author.
HOW TO USE IT
The coupon will be validated at Palazzo Mazzetti. You are entitled to 1 free entry to the 5 museums only upon purchase of 1 ticket.
OPENING HOURS and CONTACTS:
Palazzo Mazzetti, corso Alfieri 357 Asti
+39 0141 530403
info@fondazioneastimusei,it
10 am – 7 pm Tuesdays to Sundays
