Bertani's House

The residence of Giovanni Battista Bertani, a pupil of Giulio Romano and Prefect of the Works after the latter's death, shows his own distinctive hand in the façade of via Trieste 8. Bertani chose this as his residence, reconstructing an existing building and making sure that all locals could understand the basis for his work. He set down two Ionic half columns at the sides of the entrance purely for decorative and illustrative purposes. While the column on the left is positioned in the classical fashion, the interior of the other column is on full view. This feature aroused a certain apprehension in the locals, who regarded this oddity as harbouring malicious intent, so much so that Bertani was tried by the Inquisition in 1567 on the charge of Protestantism and was forced to publicly recant.