Description
Palazzo Balsamo is a 14th-century palace a stone's throw from Piazza Duomo in Brindisi, famous for its loggia: a stone balcony suspended above two pointed arches, held up by carved corbels. It's worth a stop for its sculptures, which you'll have to crane your neck to see.
The real treat is the nine corbels supporting the balcony, each with four allegorical figures, thirty-six in all. The number may not be random: in medieval numerology, 4 stood for the earth and 9, a multiple of 3, for the order that governs the world.
The palace, once known as "De Los Rejes," takes its present name from the Balsamo family. It was probably part of a much larger building that took up the whole block.
It's said, though no document confirms it, that the Angevin mint was housed here. It would have been moved here when its old home, the house of Admiral Margarito, was handed over to the Franciscans to build the convent of San Paolo Eremita.
The real treat is the nine corbels supporting the balcony, each with four allegorical figures, thirty-six in all. The number may not be random: in medieval numerology, 4 stood for the earth and 9, a multiple of 3, for the order that governs the world.
The palace, once known as "De Los Rejes," takes its present name from the Balsamo family. It was probably part of a much larger building that took up the whole block.
It's said, though no document confirms it, that the Angevin mint was housed here. It would have been moved here when its old home, the house of Admiral Margarito, was handed over to the Franciscans to build the convent of San Paolo Eremita.