Pavia is a city just waiting to be explored, where you can lose yourselves in its cobbled streets and breathe in the atmosphere of its historic buildings.

Very close to the Piazza del Municipio, a stone’s throw from the sumptuous structures that house the City Council we come to a large gateway looking onto the splendid Renaissance courtyard. It is surrounded by Palazzo Bottigella-Gandini, one of the most representative buildings of the city and the old district of Porta Palacense, one of the gates that is part of the mediaeval city walls. 

The Palazzo owes its name to the aristocratic Bottigella family, who lived there between the 13th and 18th centuries, hosting such illustrious figures as Ludovico Sforza. After the Benedictine nuns of Voghera had turned it into a school, in the 2000s the building became a private property, and today its rooms host art exhibitions. From the little courtyard, surrounded on three sides by a two-storey arched loggia, you can take the stairs to the upper floor. 

Here the Palazzo Bottigella Gandini Art Lab has renovated the spaces with temporary exhibitions and events about new images and languages. This way, the building pairs the collection of artworks to be explored and an occasion for peaceful thought and contemplation in the city.