The construction of Palazzo Pfanner dates back to 1660 when the Moriconi family, noble silk merchants from Lucca, commissioned an architect, probably from Genoa, to design a sumptuous palazzo in baroque style within the city walls.

In 1680, the property was taken over by the Controni, another family of noble merchants. They extended the building, adding the outer staircase in 1686, and the splendid Italian-style garden probably designed by Filippo Juvarra at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1692 Carlo Controni invited Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway as a guest while he was visiting Lucca during his Grand Tour of Italy. In the second half of the nineteenth century the palazzo was bought by the Austrian brewer Felix Pfanner, invited to Lucca in 1846 by Duke Carlo Lodovico di Borbone, who wanted the town brewery to be run by 'a skilled German manufacturer'.

The palazzo is currently owned by the Pfanner family who have recently commissioned the restoration of the external façades, some of the interiors and of the frescoes of the grand monumental staircase. Since the end of the nineties, both the garden and the residence have been open to the public for visiting, as well as being available for hosting exhibitions, concerts and meetings.

With a proclamation issued in 1835 the Duke of Lucca, Carlo Lodovico di Borbone, decreed that the brewing of beer in the town had to be overseen by 'a skilled German manufacturer'.

The Austrian brewer Felix Pfanner, who had arrived in Lucca in 1846 from Hörbranz, a town on the shores of Lake Constance, stepped forward in answer to the Duke’s appeal. Pfanner started making beer in partnership with Gabor Kovacevich until 1856 when he decided to start up on his own, founding the Pfanner beerhouse. He chose the then-called Palazzo Controni as premises for the beerhouse, renting the garden, cellars and ground floor.

He arranged the machinery and the vats for the fermentation of the barley in the cellars and set up a large pergola in the garden with chairs and tables in cast iron and a marble counter for serving. The Pfanner beerhouse, the first of its kind in the Duchy of Lucca and one of the first in Italy, became a traditional meeting-place for both townspeople and visitors who enjoyed passing the time with a jugful of ale, sitting in beautiful surroundings steeped in an atmosphere from the Belle époque. Thanks to the enormous success of the beerhouse, Felix was able to buy the whole palazzo which from then on took his name. The Pfanner beerhouse closed down in 1929.

Due to its charming architectural features, Palazzo Pfanner has been chosen several times as the location for the making of films, among which Arrivano i Bersaglieri by Luigi Magni (1980), with Ugo Tognazzi and Pippo Franco, Il Marchese del Grillo by Mario Monicelli (1981), with Alberto Sordi and Paolo Stoppa, and Portrait of a Lady by Jane Campion (1996), starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich.