NENA House Museum

An exciting journey through the three centuries of history enclosed in the splendid Boschi-Rivani-Garagnani Palace in Casalecchio di Reno, which has now become a House Museum that preserves and offers visitors the beauty of many furniture, paintings, ceramics, furnishings and memories, all preserved with great care.

The Palace features the typical layout of the Bolognese villas with an open gallery and side rooms both on the ground floor and on the first floor. The central body is flanked by two symmetrical lateral bodies, as well as a hortus conclusus (enclosed garden) on the western side and an Italian garden on the eastern side.

In the early nineteenth century, the complex was reconditioned: the loggia, the rooms on the ground floor and the chapel have been decorated with "Pompeian" neoclassical motifs. The internal chapel is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and opens towards the hall. The chapel features an altar with a polychrome scagliola parament, an 18th-century Carpi art, and a ceiling with 19th-century decorations.

The first information regarding the building that belonged to the Boschi family dates back to the end of the 17th century and the early years of the 18th century. The estate with the Palace was purchased by the Marquis Boschi in 1745 from the inheritance of the Segni family. In the early nineteenth century it changed ownership and, together with the farm that surrounded it, it became property of the noble family Rivani. In 1937, following the death of the noblewoman Angiolina Garagnani, widow of Angelo Rivani, the estate bequeathed to her nephew Count Vincenzo Garagnani who, in turn, left it to his daughter Countess Cesarina Garagnani Garavini, wife of Tommaso Garavini. To this last couple we owe a further restoration after the damage caused by the Second World War. Two daughters were born from their marriage, Maria Maddalena and Maria Letizia. The new Casa Museo was named after the first of the two daughters, whose nickname was “Nena”.

The NENA House Museum was born from a project of the non-profit NINA Cultural Association.