The building, born from the unification of several buildings, saw its first doing up on the facade which faces towards the present Municipal Palace, between 1849 and 1851, while the colonnade was an addition of 1934. The building was purchased at the beginning of the 20th-century by the Cassa di Risparmio of Florence whose intention was the establish their Head Office there. It was the same Cassa di Risparmio who began the restructuring to adapt it to the new functional requirements.
The decorative frieze of Galileo Chini, placed above the entrance of via Albergotti and protected by the roofing idealized by the same Tavanti, was realized after the conclusion of the restructuring work.
The pictorial intervention of Galileo Chini was carried out between the divisions of the big wooden brackets which support the suggestive roof, placed as a protection of the monumental entry stairway. Decorated in only 4 days, from the 12th. to the 16th. July 1904, the procession of joyful puttos seeks to be an allegorical representation which is a reference to the Arezzo economy of the beginning of the century, still typically agricultural, based upon local products from which the prosperity of the Institute of Arezzo first drew its origins.
The image is realized according to the more updated stylistic tendency of Liberty stylistics, the artistic trend mostly diffused in the industrially developed urban centres. Therefore the credit goes to the Cassa di Risparmio of Firenze for offering to Arezzo the first example of mural painting in Liberty style realized by Galileo Chini.
In time, the building was destined to new uses; in fact when the Bank transferred to another residence, the building was destined to the House of the Fascist Party, and in the new restructuring in 1933, the tower house incorporated in the building was raised. In the belfry expressly created with the raising, the knocker which called the Fascist gatherings sounded.
At present the Albergotti Building is the seat of the State Archives.
Itinerario Liberty - Planning and Realization - Stefano Pelosi - www.stefanopelosi.it
