Palazzo Palmaroli is located in the old historic centre or ‘incasato’ of the town of Grottammare. The main staircase features stone steps from Manoppello, supported by interior brick columns that are marbled and covered with cross-vaulted ceilings supported by canes. Ascending a first set of stairs and following through a passage to the left, visitors to the property access a secondary staircase in Belforte stone or gypsum that leads to an oval dining room with a painted ceiling. The current ceiling decorations throughout most of the residence were repainted around the mid-19th century by Ascolan painter Pietro Picca.
In the last apartment on the third floor, in addition to the ceiling painted by Picca, painter Giuseppe Pauri from San Benedetto – renowned for having decorated the Mexican Chapel of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Loreto, among other things, and the interiors of several churches in the region, including the nearby parish of San Giovanni – painted the walls in the years leading up to the Second World War with imaginative views, depicting the coastline stretching towards San Benedetto del Tronto and the Grottammare Hill as seen from the marina.
The floors in all the rooms are composed of original 18th- and 19th-century terracotta tiles from the Marche region, each room showcasing various colour palettes and distinctive designs with unique patterns.
The history of the Palmaroli family
The Palmaroli family settled in Grottammare around the year 1380, established by Simone, an experienced man-of-arms from Fermo. In 1448, Cola di Simone Palmaroli, a mercenary captain, was honoured by the city of Fermo for successfully retaking the Castle of Acquaviva from the rival city of Ascoli, for which he was granted various privileges and stipends.
Over the centuries, various family members held important ecclesiastical and civil positions, such as ‘Confalonieri’ leaders, ‘Consoli’ magistrates and ‘Podestà’ mayors, in various cities in the Marche region. These included renowned jurists such as Luciano, who was appointed as an ‘Oratore’ representative in Fermo’s General Council in 1515 and tasked with suppressing the incursions of exiles led by Lodovico Uffreducci, and subsequently Baldassarre in 1621.
The most notable members of the family, however, were two sons of Girolamo Pasquale (1720-1788), who served in the ‘Sacra Rota’ or Roman Rota, one of the highest courts of the Catholic Church, and who transferred to Rome. Pietro Palmaroli (born in 1767) was a painter and restorer who devised a method in the early 19th century for detaching frescoes from their mural support. He was in fact responsible for detaching the ‘Deposition’ by Pietro da Volterra from the Church of Trinità dei Monti in Rome, and for preserving a painting of the Madonna and Child. His brother, Domenico Palmaroli (born in 1769), was a distinguished physician and patriot. He was the author of the ‘Treatise on Petechial Typhus in the Abruzzi region’, published in the first half of the 19th century. He was also a member of the secret political society known as the Carbonari and maintained ties with the prominent Italian military leader Guglielmo Pepe.
The piano in the room on the first floor, referred to as the Piano Room, was played by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt during his stay in Grottammare in the summer of 1868.
Visits 
