Some of the city’s most interesting palaces of the nobility are situated along via Galliera, from the crossroads with via Riva Reno, with the decorated façade of the Chiesa della Madonna della Pioggia and the imposing palazzo Tanari, to the eighteenth-century palazzo Aldrovandi and the crossroads with via Manzoni and Porta di Castello, where the eighteenth-century palazzo Torfanini faces the palace which formerly housed the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri.
There are two artistic jewels along Via Manzoni: the bright, sumptuous Oratory of San Filippo Neri Filippini, and the Madonna di Galliera with its richly decorated sandstone. Further along the narrow street is the Ghisilardi Fava palace, home to the Museo Civico Medievale which contains countless paintings and sculptures. An example of fifteenth-century architecture of the nobility, with a brick façade decorated with terracotta rings, it incorporates the medieval tower of the Conoscenti and structures from the imperial castle of late antiquity.
