ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Ambassador Gaetano Cortese, together with Professor Calogero Bellanca and Professor Susana Mora Alonso Munoyerro, in the afternoon of 10 December 2025 met with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Secretary, Ambassador Riccardo Guariglia.
At the end of the meeting he was given some copies of the new book Il Palazzo di Abrantes – The Italian Institute of Culture in Madrid (Carlo Colombo Editore, 2025). According to a note, in the cordial meeting of Ambassador Cortese and the two authors of the volume, explained to the Secretary General the various phases of the laborious research carried out since 2021, during the diplomatic mission of Ambassador Guariglia in Madrid and the subsequent, completed in 2025 during the current mission of Ambassador Buccino Grimaldi.
During the meeting, they also invited the Secretary General to attend the presentation ceremony of the volume, which will be held on 27 January 2026, at 17:30, at the Nassiriya Hall of the Senate of the Republic, at the initiative of Senator Giulio Terzi of Sant’Agata, President of the Permanent Commission of the European Union Policies.
It was also announced to the Secretary General who are in the process and definition of events with the Italian Ambassador in Spain, Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi, and with the President of the Circle of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Maria Assunta Accili, for the presentation of the work at the Residence of the Italian Ambassador in Madrid and at the Palazzina Stonesi.
The publication, curated by Calogero Bellanca and Susana Mora Alonso Munoyerro, reconstructs the historical phases of the Abrantes Palace, already a diplomatic representation of Italy in Madrid from 1888 until 1939 and from that date the headquarters of the Italian Institute of Culture in the Spanish capital. The volume opens with a preface by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Riccardo Guariglia, from a premise of the Italian Ambassador in Spain, Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi and an introduction of the Ambassador Gaetano Cortese. Bellanca and Munoyerro, authors of the splendid research, protracted for some years, have reconstructed the history of the Palace since its first appearance in the urban context of Madrid, with all the various passages of the property until the purchase, in 1888, by Ambassador Giuseppe Tornielli Brusati di Vergano on behalf of King Umberto I of Savoia.
The building was intended for the seat of the Italian diplomatic representation and residence of the Italian Ambassador to the Spanish Court, until 1939, when it agreed to transfer the Italian embassy to Madrid to the Palazzo dei Marchesi in Amboage. In the same year the Abrantes Palace hosted the Italian Institute of Culture in Madrid. In the final part of the book, in the section of the documentary apparatuses, Ambassador Gaetano Cortese reports the various visits to level of Heads of State, bilateral meetings of Italy and Spain on the occasion of the COTEC Symposiums, held in Italy and Spain, as well as the lists of Italian diplomatic representatives in Spain and the directors of the Italian Institute of Culture in Madrid.
The new publication, dedicated to the Italian Institute of Culture in Madrid, completes the previous work “Il Palazzo dei Marchesi di Amboage” dedicated to the Italian Embassy, curated by Ambassador Gaetano Cortese in agreement with the then Italian Ambassador in Madrid Riccardo Guariglia, published in 2021 for the special Necklace of the Editor Carlo Colombo of Rome.
-Photos press office
(ITALPRESS).
