Lercaro Gallery
Bologna, Italy, 2000-2003
Photography © Ettore Bellini
The building in Via Riva di Reno, built after World War II, was the subject of a global redevelopment that led to the creation of the Veritatis Splendor Institute, a center for cultural research commissioned by Cardinal Giacomo Biffi. On that occasion the spaces on the ground floor and basement were designed to host the modern art collection of Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, until then kept in Villa San Giacomo, the last residence of the distinguished prelate.
To give a worthy container to the Collection, an introverted space was conceived, articulated around a newly designed interior courtyard, whose new floor, made of grass and stone, was shifted on another storey, transforming the narrow cellars into bright windowed halls. From the entrance of the ground floor a large double height hall welcomes and distributes visitors in the museum itinerary, rich in valuable works of modern art, fruit of donations received by the Cardinal and implemented after his death by the work of Mons. Arnaldo Fraccaroli, who enriched the legacy and promoted knowledge.
The intervention was chosen by the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Emilia Romagna Region and included in a list of contemporary architectures reported for the quality of the project.
