Donna Clarina’s Palace

A  typical “closed courtyard” style palace, with the manor house at the center and buildings on the sides that housed the stables, service rooms, and servants’ quarters. Of great beauty is the 16th-century tower that rises to the left of the complex. The courtyard was enclosed on the eastern side, opposite the Panaro River, by a central door supported by sturdy pillars. The palace, privately owned and still inhabited today, was referred to in 1612 as the “Palatio del Conte Claudio Rangoni Vescovo di Reggio,” from which it was inherited in 1621 by his brother Count Gherardo, the feudal lord of Ravarino; for a long time, it was still called the “Bishop’s Palace.” In 1663, it became the “Casino del Conte Lotario,” who, upon his death in 1700, bequeathed it to his only daughter, Donna Clarina Rangoni, who lived here until 1744 and after whom the building is still named today.