Construction of the Palazzo
in its current Baroque style began in 1641 by the Moriconi family – a noble Lucca family in the silk business – who, after going bankrupt, were forced in 1680 to sell the building to the Controni family, who were also noble merchants. The Contronis – an up-and-coming family that became noble in 1652 – decided to celebrate their social and financial conquers, by commissioning the building extension and decoration to some of the best architects and artists of the time.
And so they started the works to build the massive, monumental staircase, which was completed in 1686, hypothetically on a design by Domenico Martinelli (1650-1718), an architect and engineer from Lucca, very active in the Vienna and Praga courts. In all likelihood, in the early 18th century, Curzio Controni entrusted to the great architect-set designer from Messina, Filippo Juvarra (1678-1736) – who was in Lucca at the time – the redevelopment of the Gardens.
The monumental sandstone staircase leads up to the Museum, the only section of the Palazzo currently open to the public. In it, the large central hall features the fine frescoes by Pietro Paolo Scorsini (1658-1731) completed around 1720, and belonging to the so-called ‘Quadraturism’ pictorial current. The hall is connected to a bedroom and a period kitchen, with a large collection of vintage furniture, accessories and religious artefacts. Currently, the halls host a permanent exhibit of ancient medical-surgical instruments and medicine books, which belonged to Pietro Pfanner (1864-1935), surgeon, philanthropist and mayor of Lucca from 1920 to 1922.
In 1692, those rooms were the setting of the tormented love story between Prince Frederick of Denmark, the future King Frederick IV of Denmark and Norway (1671-1730) and noblewoman Maria Maddalena Trenta from Lucca. The two young people, guests of Carlo Controni, met here and had a short but intense relationship, interrupted when the Prince went back to Copenhagen. After setting off with a betrothal, the Prince couldn’t keep his promise, because, after being crowned, he was obliged to get married to a German princess. Maria Maddalena waited for him in vain for many years, until she lost all hopes and decided to take the veil. However, as fate would have it, the two of them met again in Florence, in the Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, where in the meantime Maria Maddalena had become Mother Superior. Legend has it that inside the convent the two of them had a last, intense talk. We don’t know what they said to each other, but King Frederick came out all teary.
The story of the Pfanner family is intertwined with the century-old history of the Mansion, beginning in mid-19th century. In 1846, Felix Pfanner (1818-1892), a brewer from Hörbranz on Lake Constance (Austria), original from a Bavarian family, got in contact with the Controni family. After coming to Lucca – following a call of 1845 where the Duke of Lucca, Charles Louis, requested ‘a skilled German beer maker’ for the city and for himself – Felix leased the Palazzo garden and cellars together with his associates, to place the machines and the equipment he needed to make the beverage.
Over time, with the income from the brewhouse, Felix managed to buy the entire Palazzo, which was then named after him, and became the official site of the Pfanner Brewhouse. The first beer factory in the Duchy of Lucca, and one of the first in Italy, the Pfanner Brewhouse became a popular meeting spot for everyone who wanted to drink a pint of beer, amidst an amazing monumental backdrop, with lemon trees, box hedges, peacocks and waiters in livery. After decades in business, the brewhouse closed in 1929.
