Palazzo Farinosi Branconi comes back to life and opens up to the city as the new Cultural Center of L’Aquila of La Galleria Bper. In the heart of the historic center, one of the most representative buildings of L’Aquila’s civil and artistic history is reborn after a complex recovery, restoration and refunctionalization intervention and becomes a place dedicated to culture, knowledge and participation.
The inauguration took place today in the presence of the top management of Bper, the Mayor of L’Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, the Vice President of the Abruzzo Region, Emanuele Imprudente, the President of the Civita Association, Gianni Letta, the President of the Carispaq Foundation, Fabrizio Marinelli, the Rector of the University of L’Aquila, Fabio Graziosi.
The new Cultural Center was born in the year in which L’Aquila is the Italian Capital of Culture 2026 and represents a new stage in the project with which BPER is transforming part of its historical, artistic and architectural heritage into a system of places open to communities.
“We are proud to return one of the most representative buildings of the city to its community, after an important recovery, restoration and refunctionalization intervention, together with an exhibition itinerary that puts the artistic heritage of the Bank in dialogue with the history of the Abruzzo territory – declared Fabio Cerchiai, President of Bper. It is a concrete example of how BPER interprets its relationship with the territories, through the presence and support of the communities and the valorisation of what our history has given us. In L’Aquila this takes on a particular meaning, because the city recovers a place of its own memory and an important part of the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio della Province of L’Aquila returns to the places where it was formed and is once again made available to the city.
BPER supports culture in the belief that it generates value when it is shared with people and becomes an opportunity for knowledge, meeting and participation and, as a bank close to the territories, it takes care of their development, also enhancing the historical, artistic and cultural heritage that passes through the places in which it operates, putting it at the service of those who live in those places every day. The new Cultural Center was created precisely to be an open and lively place, capable of preserving the memory, enhancing the identity of the territory and creating new opportunities”.
The Mayor of L’Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, declared: “A rediscovered palace, a new space of culture in the heart of L’Aquila. The opening of the Cultural Center of Palazzo Farinosi Branconi takes on an even more significant value in the year in which the city is the Italian Capital of Culture. One of the architectural jewels of our historic centre, recovered after the earthquake, comes back to life and is returned to the community as a place of culture, knowledge and participation. An important garrison that enriches the cultural offer of the city and demonstrates how reconstruction means not only recovering our heritage, but enhancing it and making it part of the new L’Aquila. I thank Bper for believing and investing in this project”.
The Vice President of the Abruzzo Region, Emanuele Imprudente, stated: “The Abruzzo Region looks at this day with particular pride, because Palazzo Farinosi Branconi also belongs to the memory of our regional community. Before the 2009 earthquake, in fact, the Palace hosted the Presidency of the Regional Council: it was therefore one of the places in which the institutional history of Abruzzo was written and the daily relationship between the Region and its city was consolidated capital. Today, seventeen years after the earthquake, seeing it once again become part of the cultural life of L’Aquila represents a powerful image of the reconstruction. For this reason I sincerely thank Bper, who believed in the value of Palazzo Farinosi Branconi and chose to make it available to the community as an open and accessible space, together with an artistic heritage of extraordinary value.
The President of the Carispaq Foundation, Fabrizio Marinelli, stated: “The return to the city of Palazzo Farinosi Branconi, reborn after the wounds of the earthquake and now home to the new Bper Museum Complex, takes on a value that goes far beyond the albeit important recovery of one of L’Aquila’s historic places. It is the concrete sign of a deep bond with the territory and of a shared history that unites Bper with the Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia dell’Aquila and the Foundation Carispaq, which represents the institutional continuity of that history. It is particularly significant that it is in these rooms that the works collected by the Cassa di Risparmio over the course of over one hundred and fifty years are brought together again, valorized and made accessible: a heritage that belongs to the cultural history of our community and which today is returned to its full public use. The opening of this museum represents, in this sense, an authentic gesture of generosity by Bper, of which the Foundation is a historic shareholder, towards L’Aquila. and a legacy destined to last over time, all the more precious in the year in which the city is the Italian Capital of Culture. The Foundation – concluded Marinelli – believed from the beginning in the value of this initiative, helping to activate, through the Memorandum of Understanding with Bper and the University of L’Aquila, a synergy between institutions capable of combining protection and valorisation of the heritage, scientific research, training and involvement of the new generations. It is a model of collaboration that strengthens the city’s cultural system and delivery in L’Aquila not only a new museum, but a living place of knowledge, identity and future”.
“The return of Palazzo Farinosi Branconi to the city – added the Rector of the University of L’Aquila, Fabio Graziosi – represents another important step in the process of rebirth of the historic center of L’Aquila. A building of extraordinary value comes back to life, opening up to the community and becoming a place in which heritage, knowledge and culture can meet. The University of L’Aquila is particularly pleased to have contributed to the construction of this project also on a scientific level, thanks to the work of colleagues Michele Maccherini and Luca Pezzuto, curators of the exhibition, and the research activities developed on the Palace and on the works of the collection. It is a concrete example of how the University’s skills can contribute to the knowledge and valorisation of the cultural heritage of the city and the territory. We also look with great interest at the opportunities that the opening of this new Cultural Center will offer in the field of research and training, further strengthening the relationship between the University and the city to recover our historical heritage, but returns it to the community as a living space, capable of generating new opportunities for knowledge, culture and participation”.
The project represents an example of collaboration between public and private in which the protection of heritage is intertwined with the regeneration of an identifying place and with the construction of new cultural opportunities for the territory. The recovery process, started after the serious damage caused by the 2009 earthquake, led BPER to change the original intended use of the Palace, choosing in 2023 to transform it into a museum space open to the community.
“For Bper, this project represents a concrete way of confirming its closeness to Abruzzo and the city of L’Aquila, through an initiative that combines our presence in the area with the valorisation of its cultural identity – said Luigi Zanti, Regional Director of Marche Abruzzo of Bper. The choice to open a BPER La Galleria Center here stems from the desire to create a place capable of giving back to the community an important part of its history and, at the same time, offering new opportunities for meeting and getting to know each other. L’Aquila is a city that has been able to transform the path of reconstruction into an extraordinary opportunity for relaunching and opening up to the future. Being here, in the year in which it is the Italian Capital of Culture, has a particular meaning for us: it means accompanying this path by making available to the city not only the works of our collection, but an open, accessible place designed to dialogue with people, schools and the realities of the territory”.
“With the Cultural Center of L’Aquila, a precise idea of valorisation takes shape, declared Sabrina Bianchi, Head of Cultural Heritage at the Bper Gallery. The collection, the architecture of Palazzo Farinosi Branconi and the artistic history of the territory build a single story here, made up of different contributions and skills while respecting the identity and original characteristics. This is the principle that guides the system of the Bper Cultural Centers: safeguarding a heritage means studying it, connecting it with people and territories and create the conditions to continue producing knowledge”.
From tomorrow, Thursday 3 September, Palazzo Farinosi Branconi will be open to the public with the permanent exhibition “Chest of memories. Landscapes, color and tradition: five centuries of Southern art”, which brings together works from different parts of the Bper Corporate Collection and returns to the city a significant part of the historic collection of the Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia dell’Aquila.
The route spans five centuries, from the end of the fifteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century and highlights the artistic relationships that over the centuries have connected Abruzzo with the Marche, Umbria, Rome, Naples and the South. The works are presented in dialogue with the historical environments of the Palace, with its frescoes, wooden ceilings and decorative devices, creating a narrative in which building, collection and territory become part of a single story.
The new Cultural Center of L’Aquila thus enters the Bper Cultural Center System, coordinated by La Galleria Bper, which makes the Corporate Collection accessible and enhances its value through exhibitions, research activities, educational programs and initiatives aimed at communities. After Modena and L’Aquila, the system will be completed with the opening of the Ferrara Cultural Centre, scheduled for October.
The L’Aquila Center will be a space open to citizens, schools, families, scholars and visitors, with guided tours, educational activities and in-depth programmes. The educational proposal, free and dedicated to schools of all levels, will accompany the visit to the works with participatory and inclusive activities, linking art, architecture, history and territory.