Palazzo Garzolini di Toppo Wassermann
Aula Pierpaolo Pasolini- Via Gemona 92, Udine
 

 

     The School for Advanced Studies of the University of Udine is located in the prestigious 18th century Toppo Wassermann Palace
     The palace is located in Borgo Gemona and its history is linked to some important families of Udine. Polcenigo is the name of the founder: the building was constructed between 1705 and 1706 by Marzio Polcenigo, who built the new residence on the land inherited by his wife Tranquilla Guliola from her first husband Pietro Bortoli. The Garzolini were the second owners: in 1790 the Polcenigo family sold the palazzo and the land belonging to it to Margherita Annibale Mangilli, wife of Count Giuseppe Garzolini, who had moved from Tolmezzo to Udine after the Carnia earthquake. In the nineteenth century the building was still owned by the Garzolini family: in fact it was the residence of Giusto and his wife, the noblewoman Maria Sbroiavacca, who, having lost her husband and being without heirs, bequeathed the entire property to the factory owner Giovanni Battista Job. The new owner immediately donated the building to the Renati Orphanage. In 1901 it was acquired by the municipality and the province to build the Toppo-Wassermann boarding school, with which the history of the building is linked in the twentieth century. During the First World War, part of the building was used as a military hospital. In 2002 the Palace was given for use to the University of Udine, which in recent years has worked to restore the entire complex, with particular attention to the fresco decoration of the interiors.         Covering an area of 7,000 square metres, the building now houses 84 student rooms, 10 classrooms, an auditorium and the Velarium, which is regularly used for exhibitions and cultural events.