Dall’acquisto alla messa in opera: pietre, marmi, marmorari e scultori italiani nel castello di Alnwick (1853-1863)

In the renovation of the interiors of the Alnwick castle of the 4th Duke of Northumberland between 1853 and 1867 by the architects Luigi Canina (1795-1856), and, above all, his main collaborator, Giovanni Montiroli (1817-1888), a significant role was played - together with the extraordinary wooden ceilings – by the creation of Italian fireplaces in the neo-Renaissance style and the reconstruction of the chapel in neo-Gothic style. The former embellished the walls of the representative rooms (elaborate and majestic) and the private ones (in simplified lines) and were entrusted to qualified carvers and sculptors; the second involved the best Roman marble workers in the creation of the wall cladding in slabs of Carrara marble with inserts of 'mosaics in the Alessandrian work’. The management of the construction site was complex and involved a decisive commitment by the designer in controlling the workers: from the creation of the pieces in Rome, to the packaging for shipping and transport up to the implementation in the castle, located on the borders of England.