Palazzo Langosco e Biblioteca Civica Giovanni Canna

via Corte d'Appello, 12 - 15033 Casale Monferrato (AL)
Tel. +39 0142 444.323
Tel. +39 0142 444.246
Fax: +39 0142 452.055
E-mail: bibliote@comune.casale-monferrato.al.it
http://www.comune.casale-monferrato.al.it/biblioteca
https://www.comune.casale-monferrato.al.it/palazzo-langosco

The Civic Library Giovanni Canna of Casale Monferrato, founded in 1915, is the second biggest library in Piedmont, with 350 thousand books and a century-long history. In addition to the importance of its historical, documentary and bibliographic heritage, it is necessary to recall the beauty of the rooms of Palazzo Langosco.


This complex is formed by the subsequent transformations of a first construction consisting of two cloisters that are still recognizable and located between Via Roma and Via Cavour.

The 18th century Palazzo Langosco was added in the part of the plot that faces via Corte d'Appello. The two cloisters, of medieval origin, have undergone radical transformations over time and are now home to the Civic Museum and Civic Library of Casale. S. Croce is what remains of the magnificent transformation by Francesco Ottavio Magnocavalli in the late 18th century.
Interesting internal renovation works have been recently carried out.


The impressive baroque atrium with its grand staircase is of particular note. Inside, the room of the stuccoes, fruit of the embellishment work of 1837, provides an appropriate seat to the Senate of Casale.

During the guided tours, by reservation or organised periodically, it is even possible to touch by hand some of the rare and antique books preserved in the Library: ancient parchments, antiphonaries, manuscripts, incunabula, 16th century books, Elzevrian editions, drawings, prints, maps, local periodicals, and with them the Photograph Collection of Francesco Negri, full of thousands of 19th century photographic plates, a considerable part of which is dedicated to Monferrato and its monuments.