The son of Luigi Pizzardi and Maria Antonietta Marescotti Berselli, he was born in Bologna on 4 December 1850. His family, which had become wealthy through the management of land distributed in the territories of Castel Maggiore and Santa Maria in Duno, obtained the title of marquis in 1833.
His father was the founder of the Società Anonima Officina Meccanica e Fonderia di Bologna, was president of the Papal Bank for the four Legations and was the first mayor of Bologna after the fall of the Papal State. His mother came from one of the richest families in Bologna, had four children – Francesco, Camillo, Carlo Alberto and Cesarina – and died at a young age. Like his older brothers, Carlo Alberto studied at the Collegio dei Tolomei in Siena.
Discover more
He continued the land reclamation in the rice fields. He paid special attention to the efficiency of the proto-industrial structures of the grain mill and rice mill. He had his favourite residence, the Palazzo Rosso, built. He ordered the construction of most of Bentivoglio’s buildings: the Vivaio palace for the evacuees from the castle, dwellings for farm labourers, warehouses for storing the grain and rice produced on the estate, probably the palace for the shops, the Town Hall, the Carabinieri barracks and the hospital. Finally, he had Alfonso Rubbiani restore the Bentivoglio castle, where he set up a school, kindergarten and church for the people of Bentivoglio.
A philanthropist who was constantly involved in charity work, in the last years of his life he initiated the paperwork for the donation of the huge patrimony he had accumulated to his labourers, but the political tensions linked to the agrarian struggle thwarted everything. For his exceptional donation of land, real estate and furniture to the Bologna Hospitals Administration, on 17 January 1920 he was made a meritorious citizen by the Municipality of Bologna.
In his will, he designated the Ospedale Maggiore as universal heir of the remaining estate, with the obligation to build a hospital for tuberculosis patients, the one that would be named “Ospedale Bellaria Carlo Alberto Pizzardi”.
Carlo Alberto Pizzardi died in Bologna on 10 December 1922.
Textual content curated by Marianna Biondi
VISIT