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Carpi, a princely Renaissance seat, Emilia Romagna

To transform Carpi from a town into a "princely Renaissance seat", this was the idea of the last of the Pio family at Carpi, Alberto III (1475 - 1531), a humanist prince and extraordinary intellectual, a pupil of Aldo Manuzio and Giovanni Pico.

The foundation or the reorganisation of the "official places" in the city (the square, the palace and the Collegiate church); the creation of "public services" (the abattoir, the market, the library) in the area to the south of the square; improvement of the fortifications and the urban structure by building monasteries, new suburbs and working on the city walls: all these projects were planned by the Prince and give the historic city centre its present appearance.

The Pio Palace became a real court with the construction of the court of honour, the facade and the interior decorations in line with the models of Roman derivation by the architect Baldassarre Peruzzi.
The spectacular Renaissance square (276 by 60 metres) with its extraordinary perspective was created as the political, religious and administrative heart of the city.
The construction of the new Collegiate Church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, was begun in 1515 and it seems that a wooden model, probably by Peruzzi, came from Rome based on the classical style that Raffaello had created for St. Peter's Church in Rome.
Alberto III Pio and the Carpi court.

The picture we have of Alberto from historical records is that of an "intellectual prince", in touch with the humanistic culture and the important men of that time such as Giovanni Pico from Mirandola and Aldo Manuzio (his master) while the last years of Alberto's life are linked to Erasmus of Rotterdam.

With his historical culture, his boldness and his determination, he was also a gifted diplomat, working in the service of the European leaders and the Roman church (perhaps more to keep his small but important principality than for any other reason).

It stands to reason, then, that Alberto III's "field of action" was far from Carpi (he, himself, often lived for long periods outside the city), but it was also from here and from the town planning and architectural changes that he found the strength for his role.

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