Page 21 - C_Modena
P. 21
Rettorato, Polo Museale | Rectorate, Museum Complex 99
An enlargement project by the architect Arturo Prati,
1919-1926
During the first years after the war, they decided to commission an im-
provement and enlargement project of the premises of Palazzo Universi-
tario and the connecting houses to the architect Arturo Prati – who was
also a decoration drawing Professor. The aim was making the premises
of Casa Frignani functional by getting rid of the various accesses to the
rooms of Palazzo Universitario and the numerous staircases, and by ren-
ovating premises not usable at the time. Prati realised the first drawing
of the adaptation project of Casa Frignani’s façade, which planned the
continuation on the neighbouring building of the organic distribution
and decorative of the eighteenth-century Palazzo Universitario, in order
to form a single construction body with another entrance, symmetrical
to the already existing one. This project was finally not accomplished,
similar to the one for the façade on the then Corso Umberto I, now Corso
Canalgrande. Afterwards, Prati proposed a second project, as can be seen
in his 1919 report, the objective of which was the complete maintenance
of the structure of the two buildings, on one hand the seventeen-century
Palazzo Universitario and on the other Casa Frignani. The project, pre-
sented on July 27, 1921, was approved on October 1.
Prati’s intervention, completed between 1921 and 1926, was summa-
rised by two reports, on August 29, 1935 and of September 3, 1935
respectively: for the transformation and the stabilisation of the men-
tioned houses, the main walls were demolished and then re-built while
the entire construction body was located in the courtyard, thereby cre-
ating a unified building reaching the height of the adjoining Palazzo
Universitario, with four floors, a completely new roof and with a central
terrace on the second floor. The ground floor was raised, creating spac-
es near the existing courtyards and service areas, secondary and service
ladders were demolished, replacing them with a large staircase access
The staircase access to the Great Hall, Palazzo Universitario, Modena